Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fourfoldtestofmoOOslielricli 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  THIS  AUTHOR 


CHRISTIAN  SC3INCE  SO-CALLED. 

16ino.     N«t,  50  Mnts 

RUDOLF  EUCKEN'S  MESSAGE  TO  OUR  AGE. 

16ino.    Net,  3S  aento 

THEOLOGICAL  ENCYCLOPiEDL4. 

16mo.     Net,  35  cent* 

SACERDOTALISM  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

Crown  8to.     Net,  $2.00 
UNBELIEF  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

Crown  8to.    Net,  $2.00 
HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Two  Tolumee.     8to.  $3.50 

SYSTEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

8to.    Net,   $2.00 


A  FOURFOLD  TEST 
OF  MORMONISM 


BY 


HENRY  C.  SHELDON 

ProfeMor  in  Boetob  University 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright.  1914,  hj 
HENRY  C.  SHELDON 


PREFACE 

Scholars  generally  have  had  such 
a  lively  impression  of  the  utter  ground- 
lessness of  the  claims  of  Mormonism 
that  they  have  been  inclined  to  shrink 
from  awarding  those  claims  any  serious 
consideration.  We  can  appreciate  this 
mental  attitude;  but  we  remind  our- 
selves that  it  is  not  always  wise 
and  profitable  to  follow  the  dictates 
even  of  a  just  disdain.  Apart  from 
its  intrinsic  merits,  a  system  which 
seeks  to  perpetuate  and  extend  itself 
by  a  great  force  of  missionaries  kept 
constantly  in  the  field  may  well  be 
awarded  a  measure  of  careful  scrutiny. 
This  conviction  has  led  us  to  prepare 
the  present  treatise.  Our  aim  has  been 
to  give  in  brief  form  a  comprehensive 
and  thoroughly  articulated  criticism  of 
the  Mormon  religion. 
6 

343953 


.6  P3EPACE 

The  footnotes  indicate  in  general 
the  sources  from  which  we  have 
drawn.  It  is  incumbent  on  us,  how- 
ever, to  make  grateful  mention  of 
the  information  which  has  been  fur- 
nished in  personal  letters  of  very 
competent  observers  of  present-day 
Mormonism  in  Utah. 

Boston  University,  July,  1914. 


PART  I 
THE  fflSTORICAL  TEST 


v: 


^ 


.v~- ''  ^ 


y y  y  dadt"  t  j 


^x 


PART  I 
THE  HISTORICAL  TEST 


The  foremost  credential  of  Joseph 
Smith,  Jr.,  whom  the  Mormons  recog- 
nize as  their  founder,  was  undoubtedly 
the  Book  of  Mormon,  which  was 
published  at  Palmyra,  New  York,  in 
1830,  as  a  translation  of  writings 
engraved  in  Reformed  Egyptian  upon 
plates  which  had  been  hidden  some 
fourteen  centuries  before  in  a  hill 
near  the  translator's  home,  and  which, 
according  to  his  story,  were  brought 
into  his  possession  in  1827  through 
the  instrumentality  of  an  angel.  As 
the  agent  for  introducing  this  new 
Bible  into  the  world,  Joseph  Smith 
had,  among  the  enthusiasts  who  gath- 
ered about  him,  a  prestige  which 
kept  him  in  the  ascendant.  As  often 
as  any  one  of  them  was  taken  with 

9 


10  A  FOUEFOLD  TEST 

an  ambition  to  play  any  sort  of 
independent  role  as  prophet,  or  rev- 
elator,  he  could  be  put  to  silence  by 
the  superior  authority  of  the  man 
who  was  reputed  to  have  been  the 
chosen  means  of  bringing  to  light  a 
full  volume  of  sacred  writings. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  first 
demand,  in  a  crucial  dealing  with 
Mormonism,  is  to  test  the  claims  of 
the  founder  in  relation  to  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  The  primary  question  is: 
Are  those  claims  credible,  or  do  they 
bear  unmistakably  the  stamp  of  false- 
hood and  imposture? 

Many  considerations,  some  of  which 
are  of  compelling  force,  shut  up  the 
critical  investigator  to  the  second  al- 
ternative. In  the  first  place,  the 
antecedent  character  and  occupation 
of  Joseph  Smith  invite  strongly  to 
the  belief  that  his  discovery  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  a  mere  pre- 
tense.    He  was  notoriously  given  to 


OF  MORMONISM  11 

telling  big  stories.  Pomeroy  Tucker, 
who  was  well  acquainted  with  Joseph, 
his  family,  and  most  of  his  earlier 
followers,  testifies  that  as  a  youth 
and  young  man  he  was  ^^noted  for 
his  indolent  and  vagabondish  character, 
and  his  habits  of  exaggeration  and  un- 
truthfulness."* Daniel  Hendrix  writes 
from  personal  knowledge  of  Smith: 
'^He  was  a  good  talker,  and  would 
have  made  a  fine  stump-speaker  if 
he  had  had  the  training.  He  was 
known  among  the  young  men  I  asso- 
ciated with  as  a  romancer  of  the 
first  water.  I  never  knew  so  igno- 
rant a  man  as  Joe  was  to  have  such 
a  fertile  imagination.  He  never  could 
tell  a  common  occurrence  in  his 
daily  life  without  embellishing  the 
story  with  his  imagination. ''^  S.  S. 
Harding,  a  native  of  Palmyra,  makes 
note  of  the  fact  that  Smith  as  a  boy 

1  Origin,  Riae,  and  Progress  of  Mormonism,  p.  16. 

3  Cited  by  W.  A.  Linn,  The  Story  of  the  Mormons,  p.  13. 


12  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

had  such  a  reputation  for  exaggeration 
that  it  was  a  customary  comment  in 
the  neighborhood  when  a  specially 
incredible  story  was  narrated,  ^'That 
is  as  big  a  lie  as  young  Joe  ever  told/'* 
In  1833  eleven  residents  of  Man- 
chester and  fifty-one  residents  of 
Palmyra  (the  two  neighboring  towns 
in  which  the  Smith  family  lived  dur- 
ing their  stay  in  the  State  of  New 
York)  recorded  their  judgment  on  the 
shiftless  and  untrustworthy  character 
of  the  Smith  family,  Joseph  inclu- 
ded.' 

Not  less  full  and  explicit  is  the 
testimony  of  witnesses,  having  per- 
sonal knowledge,  to  the  radical  bent 
of  Joseph  Smith  to  play  the  role  of 
a  magical  occultism  in  search  for 
hidden  treasure.  The  fifty-one  res- 
idents of  Palmyra  mentioned  above 

1  Thomas  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Palmsrra,  p.  39. 

2  E.  D.  Howe,  Mormonism  Unveiled,  1834,  pp.  261,  262.  Several 
individual  testimonies,  besides  these  collective  statements,  are 
cited  by  Howe  from  residents  of  these  towns. 


OF  MORMONISM  13 

refer  to  the  large  amount  of  time 
spent  in  digging  for  money  imagined 
to  have  been  concealed  in  the  earth. 
Pomeroy  Tucker  narrates  how  Joseph 
claimed  by  means  of  a  ^'peep-stone," 
or  ' 'seer-stone" — a  peculiar  stone  which 
was  discovered  in  1819  while  a  well 
was  being  dug  on  the  premises  of 
Willard  Chase — to  be  able  to  point 
out  the  location  of  buried  treasure. 
He  says  that  he  practiced  this  im- 
posture at  intervals  from  1820  to 
1827,  the  latter  date  being  that  of 
the  alleged  delivery  to  him  of  the 
plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.^  Isaac 
Hale,  whose  daughter  Emma,  much 
against  the  wish  of  her  father,  was 
married  to  the  pretentious  treasure- 
seeker,  records  this  statement:  "I  first 
became  acquainted  with  Joseph  Smith, 
Jr.,  in  November,  1825.  He  was  at 
that  time  in  the  employ  of  a  set  of 
men  who  were   called  money -diggers, 

I  The  Origin,  Rise,  and  Progress  of  Mormonism,  pp.  19-26. 


U  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

and  his  occupation  was  that  of  see- 
ing, or  pretending  to  see,  by  means 
of  a  stone  placed  in  his  hat,  and  his 
hat  closed  over  his  face.  In  this 
way  he  pretended  to  discover  minerals 
and  hidden  treasure/'* 

Antecedents  of  this  kind  have  an 
unmistakable  significance.  Where  in 
all  the  world  could  a  more  select 
agent  be  found  for  concocting  the 
fiction  of  the  ^^Golden  Bible''  than  the 
young  man  notorious  for  telling  fan- 
tastic yarns  and  for  claiming  to  be 
able  with  his  magical  peep-stone  to 
locate  hidden  treasures?  Who  can 
fail  to  see  that  the  story  of  the  finding 
and  translation  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon was  squarely  in  line  with  the 
swollen  talk  and  peep-stone  perform- 
ances of  this  latter-day  Joseph?  All 
these  things  fall  into  one  continuous 
series.  The  alleged  translation,  so  far 
as  connected  with  any  peculiar  instru- 

^  £.  D.  Howe,  Mormonism  Unveiled,  pp.  262-266. 


OF  MORMONISM  15 

mentality,  was  a  peep-stone  perform- 
ance. The  claim  that  ^'urim  and 
thummim''  (described  as  large  prisms 
set  in  rims)  were  employed  was  prob- 
ably an  afterthought,  a  refinement 
on  the  crude  original  scheme  of  magic. 
It  is  to  be  noticed  that  a  Mormon 
historian  concedes  that  the  peep-stone 
figured  in  the  work  of  translation, 
though  he  supposes  the  urim  and 
thummim  to  have  been  used  also.^ 

In  the  second  place  the  different 
stories  which  Smith  told  about  the 
plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  im- 
peach his  honesty  and  veracity  in 
the  matter.  As  appears  in  the  testi- 
mony of  Peter  IngersoU  given  below, 
he  declared  primarily  that  no  one 
(himself  excepted)  could  see  the  plates 
and  live.^  According  to  his  declara- 
tion made  in  the  presence  of  Sophia 
Lewis,  the  book  of  plates  could  not 

»  J.  H.  Evans,  One  Hundred  Years  of  Mormonism,  p.  70.    Com- 
pare B.  H.  Roberts,  New  Witness  for  God,  iii,  pp.  106-110. 
«  E.  D.  Howe,  Mormonism  Unveiled,  pp.  232-237. 


16  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

be  opened  under  penalty  of  death  by 
any  other  person  than  his  firstborn.^ 
By  the  terms  of  the  revelation  dated 
March,  1829,  and  printed  in  the 
authoritative  volume  of  Doctrine  and 
Covenants,^  only  three  of  that  genera- 
tion were  to  be  qualified  to  testify 
along  with  Smith  on  the  ground  of 
being  shown  that  which  had  been 
disclosed  to  him.  In  direct  conflict 
with  the  tenor  of  this  revelation,  a 
statement  incorporated  with  the  Book 
of  Mormon  affirmed  that  eight  besides 
the  three  had  not  only  seen,  but 
handled,  the  plates.  To  the  Rev. 
N.  C.  Lewis,  a  relative  of  Smith's 
father-in-law,  he  made  promise  that  at 
a  certain  future  time,  when  the  plates 
would  be  placed  on  exhibition,  there 
would  be  a  chance  for  him  to  view 
them.'  Thus  involved  and  contra- 
dictory were  his  declarations  on  the 

1  Howe,  p.  269. 

2  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  v,  10-14. 
»  Howe,  pp.  266,  267. 


OF  MORMONISM  17 

possibility  and  the  conditions  of  see- 
ing the  unearthed  original  of  the  Mor- 
mon Bible.  In  other  respects  also 
his  stories  failed  to  match.  In  the 
final  version  an  angel  served  as  the 
custodian  of  the  plates.  But  as  Hiel 
and  Joseph  Lewis,  sons  of  N.  C. 
Lewis,  declare.  Smith  reported  to  their 
father  that  the  figure  which  con- 
fronted him  when  he  attempted  to 
get  the  plates  was  that  of  ''a  Spaniard 
having  a  long  beard  down  over  his 
breast,  with  his  throat  cut  from  ear 
to  ear  and  the  blood  streaming  down.''^ 
With  still  more  flagrant  seK-contradic- 
tion,  he  admitted  in  a  burst  of  con- 
fidence that  the  story  of  his  great 
discovery  originated  in  a  pleasantry 
perpetrated  on  his  own  family.  In 
the  affidavit  of  Peter  IngersoU,  as 
given  in  1833,  we  are  informed  that 
he  accompanied  Smith  on  a  trip  to 
the  home  of  Isaac  Hale,  in  Harmony, 

» liim,  The  Story  of  the  Mormons,  p.  28. 


18  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Pennsylvania,  in  order  to  assist  him 
to  bring  back  the  effects  of  the  wife 
whom  he  had  secured  shortly  before 
by  an  elopement.  He  says  that  Smith 
was  noticeably  affected  by  the  rebuke 
which  he  received  from  his  father-in- 
law,  and  was  not  a  little  inclined  to 
accept  his  admonition  to  give  up  his 
foolish  search  for  money  by  means  of 
the  peep-stone,  but  he  felt  that  his 
family  would  wish  to  push  him  on 
in  the  old  line.  'In  this  dilemma,'' 
continues  Ingersoll,  ''he  made  me  his 
confidant,  and  told  me  what  daily 
transpired  in  the  family  of  the  Smiths. 
One  day  he  came  and  greeted  me 
with  a  joyful  countenance.  Upon  ask- 
ing the  cause  of  his  unusual  happiness, 
he  replied  in  the  following  language: 
'As  I  was  passing  yesterday  across 
the  woods,  after  a  heavy  shower  of 
rain,  I  found  in  a  hollow  some  beau- 
tiful white  sand  that  had  been  washed 
up   by   the   water.      I    took   off   my 


OF  MORMONISM  19 

frock  and  tied  up  several  quarts  of 
it,  and  then  went  home.  On  entering 
the  house  I  found  the  family  at  the 
table  eating  dinner.  They  were  all 
anxious  to  know  the  contents  of  my 
frock.  At  that  moment  I  happened 
to  think  about  a  history  found  in 
Canada,  called  a  Golden  Bible;  so  I 
very  gravely  told  them  that  it  was 
the  Golden  Bible.  To  my  surprise, 
they  were  credulous  enough  to  believe 
what  I  said.  Accordingly,  I  told  them 
that  I  had  received  a  commandment 
to  let  no  one  see  it,  ''for,"  says  I, 
''no  man  can  see  it  with  his  natural 
eye  and  live."  However,  I  offered 
to  take  out  the  book  and  show  it  to 
them,  but  they  refused  to  see  it  and 
left  the  room.     Now,'    said  Joe,   'I 

have  got  the  d d  fools  fixed,  and 

will  carry  out  the  fun.'  Notwithstand- 
ing he  told  me  he  had  no  such  book 
and  believed  there  never  was  such  a 
book,  he  told  me  he  actually  went  to 


20  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Willard  Chase  to  get  him  to  make  a 
chest  in  which  he  might  deposit  the 
Golden  Bible. '^^  From  Chase  we  learn 
that  the  request  for  making  the  chest 
was  actually  put  forward,  but  was 
not  complied  with  because  the  de- 
sired guaranty  of  good  faith  was  not 
furnished.^  Coupled  with  the  con- 
flicting statements  of  Smith  about  the 
plates,  this  affidavit  of  Ingersoll,  sup- 
ported as  it  is  by  the  testimony  of 
several  of  his  acquaintances  to  his 
integrity  and  reliabihty,*  is  well 
adapted  to  carry  the  conviction  that 
it  is  a  true  report  of  the  inception  of 
the  Golden  Bible  project.  It  is  any 
amount  more  credible  than  all  the 
stories  told  about  the  visitation  of 
angels  or  the  attempts  of  satanic  foes 
to  wrest  away  the  newly  discovered 
treasure. 

In  the  third  place  the  ample  list 

1  Howe,  pp.  232-237. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  245. 
>  Ibid.,  248,  249. 


OF  MORMONISM  21 

of  demonstrations  given  by  Joseph 
Smith  of  his  capability  of  downright 
faking  are  destructive  of  faith  in  the 
supposition  that  he  either  possessed  or 
translated  any  antique  documents.  At 
the  head  stands  the  demonstration 
which  he  incautiously  gave  in  con- 
nection with  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
Being  importuned  by  Martin  Harris — 
who  mortgaged  his  farm  to  provide 
money  for  the  publication  of  the  new 
Bible — to  give  him  a  specimen  of 
the  Reformed  Egyptian  in  which  the 
volume  was  assumed  to  have  been 
written;  Smith  at  length  furnished  the 
specimen.  Harris  took  this  to  Pro- 
fessor Charles  Anthon  in  New  York 
city.  According  to  the  statement  of 
the  professor — which,  as  the  testimony 
of  an  upright  disinterested  party, 
weighs  incomparably  more  than  that 
which  Smith  was  pleased  to  give  of 
the  matter  some  years  later — he  saw 
at  once  that  a  fraud  was  being  at- 


22  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

tempted.  The  paper  presented  by 
Harris,  he  says,  was  a  singular  scrawl. 
^^It  consisted  of  all  kinds  of  crooked 
characters,  disposed  in  columns,  and 
had  evidently  been  prepared  by  some 
person  who  had  before  him  at  the 
time  a  book  containing  various  al- 
phabets. Greek  and  Hebrew  letters, 
crosses  and  flourishes,  Roman  letters 
inverted,  or  placed  sideways,  were 
arranged  and  placed  in  perpendicular 
columns;  and  the  whole  ended  in  a 
rude  delineation  of  a  circle,  divided 
into  various  compartments,  decked 
with  various  strange  marks,  and  evi- 
dently copied  after  the  Mexican  cal- 
endar given  by  Humboldt,  but  copied 
in  such  a  way  as  not  to  betray  the 
source  whence  it  was  derived.  I  am 
thus  particular  as  to  the  contents  of 
the  paper,  inasmuch  as  I  have  fre- 
quently conversed  with  my  friends  on 
the  subject  since  the  Mormonite  excite- 
ment began,  and  well  remember  that 


OF  MORMONISM  23 

the  paper  contained  anything  else  but 
Egyptian  hieroglyphics.''  * 

That  Smith's  claim  to  have  an 
antique  book  written  in  Reformed 
Egyptian  was  a  capital  instance  of 
faking  is  further  placed  beyond  rea- 
sonable doubt  by  subsequent  instances 
of  a  like  unscrupulous  procedure  on 
his  part.  In  1835  he  secured  from  a 
traveUng  showman  some  mummies, 
attached  to  which  were  papyri  in- 
scribed with  Egyptian  hieroglyphics. 
In  1842  he  made  bold  to  publish  fac- 
similes of  the  hieroglyphics  and  a 
translation  in  which  it  was  made  out 
that  the  curious  characters  incorpor- 
ated a  biography  by  the  hand  of 
Abraham.  Jules  Remy,  who  obtained 
a  copy  of  the  text  and  translation, 

i  Dated  February  17,  1834,  and  printed  in  Howe's  Mormonism 
Unveiled,  pp.  270-272.  A  letter  of  Anthon  seven  years  later  refers 
to  this  visit  of  Harris,  and  also  gives  an  account  of  a  second  visit. 
Mormon  apologists  are  able  to  point  out  some  discrepancies  be- 
tween the  two  letters.  But  they  are  such  as  might  result  from  a 
memory  not  supported  by  records  at  hand,  and  on  the  main  point 
— the  character  of  the  pretended  excerpt  from  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon— the  two  letters  show  complete  agreement. 


24  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

submitted  them  to  Th6odule  Dev6ria, 
of  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  and 
pubUshed  his  rendering  alongside  that 
of  Smith  in  1861.  The  contrast  be- 
tween the  two  is  striking.  The  French 
savant,  in  fact,  convicts  Smith  of 
groundless  pretense  in  his  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Egyptian  characters.^  A 
like  result  was  reached  by  the  English 
Egyptologists,  Budge  and  Woodward, 
in  1903.^  More  recently  the  fac- 
similes were  submitted  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  following  experts:  A.  H. 
Sayce,  W.  M.  Fhnders  Petrie,  James 
H.  Breasted,  Arthur  C.  Mace,  John 
Peters,  S.  A.  B.  Mercer,  Edward 
Meyer,  and  Friedrich  Freiherr  von 
Bissing.  Passing  judgment  in  entire 
independence  of  each  other,  these  em- 
inent scholars  were  fully  agreed  in 
the  conclusion  that  the  facsimiles 
were  specimens  of  characters  commonly 


*  Remy,  A  Journey  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  ii,  pp.  536fif. 
2  The  Utah  Survey,  September,  1913,  pp.  11,  12. 


OF  MORMONISM  25 

found  in  Egyptian  tombs,  and  that 
the  interpretation  by  Joseph  Smith 
was  utterly  aside  from  their  real 
significance.^ 

Another  instance  of  fraudulent  pre- 
tense, historically  less  important  but 
quite  as  glaring  as  that  just  mentioned, 
is  reported  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Caswall. 
In  1842  he  visited  Nauvoo,  lUinois, 
then  the  headquarters  of  Mormonism. 
To  test  the  latter-day  ' 'prophet''  he 
took  with  him  a  Greek  manuscript 
of  the  Psalter,  judged  to  be  about 
six  hundred  years  old  and  quite  antique 
in  appearance.  The  result  of  his 
interview  he  reports  in  these  words: 
''I  handed  the  book  to  the  prophet 
and  begged  him  to  explain  its  con- 
tents. He  asked  me  if  I  had  any 
idea  of  its  meaning.  I  replied  that  I 
believed  it  to  be  a  Greek  Psalter; 
but   that  I   should  like  to  hear  his 


1  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  as  Translator.     An  Inquiry  conducted  by 
Right  Rev.  F.  S.  Spalding.  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Utah,  1912. 


26  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

opinion.  ^No/  he  said,  'it  ain't  Greek 
at  all,  except  perhaps  a  few  words. 
What  ain't  Greek  is  Egyptian; 
and  what  ain't  Egyptian  is  Greek. 
This  book  is  very  valuable.  It  is  a 
dictionary  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphics.' 
Pointing  to  the  capital  letters  at 
the  commencement  of  each  verse, 
he  said:  Them  figures  is  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics;  and  them  which  follow 
is  the  interpretation  of  the  hiero- 
glyphics written  in  Reformed  Egyptian. 
Them  characters  is  like  the  letters 
which  was  engraved  on  the  golden 
plates.'  "^ 

On  the  same  level  with  this  case 
of  baseless  pretense  was  the  claim 
of  Smith  to  be  able  to  translate  the 
Kinderhook  plates  and  to  discover  in 
them  a  history  of  one  of  the  descendants 
of  Ham.^  These  plates  were  dug  up 
near    Kinderhook,    Illinois,    in    1843. 

1  The  City  of  the  Mormons,  or  Three  Days  at  Nauvoo  in  1842, 
second  edition,  1843,  p.  36. 

*  Reported  in  the  Millennial  Star,  January  15,  1859. 


OF  MORMONISM  27 

Not  a  few  were  deceived  by  their 
antique  appearance,  till  at  length  ia 
1879,  W.  Fulgate,  one  of  those  to 
devise  the  humbug,  made  affidavit  as 
to  how  the  plates  had  been  fashioned 
and  caused  to  bear  the  semblance  of 
age.^ 

A  further  instance,  in  a  somewhat 
different  line  but  equally  significant  of 
brazen  pretence  and  headlong  disre- 
gard for  truth,  appears  in  the  so-called 
translation  of  the  Christian  Bible. 
Large  parts  of  the  translation  do  not 
differ  at  all  from  the  King  James 
Version,  and  many  other  parts  differ 
only  by  slight  verbal  changes.  But 
an  out  and  out  addition  is  made  to 
the  fiftieth  chapter  of  Genesis,  and 
the  twenty-ninth  chapter  of  Isaiah  is 
arbitrarily  amplified,  the  plain  design 

<>Linn,  pp.  86,  87.  The  plea  of  a  Mormon  apologist  that  the 
late  date  of  Fulgate's  testimony  is  ground  for  challenging  its 
truthfulness  is  far  from  disposing  of  the  sworn  statement.  The 
necessity  that  the  witness  should  take  account  of  his  confederates, 
as  well  as  a  natural  hesitation  to  declare  his  share  in  a  fraud  on 
the  public,  might  easily  have  induced  delay. 


28  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

of  this  double  outrage  against  the 
text  being  the  insertion  of  a  forecast 
of  the  prophetic  vocation  of  Joseph 
Smith  and  of  the  unearthing  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  In  this  barefaced 
falsification,  Rigdon,  as  being  joint 
translator  with  Smith,  was  an  accom- 
plice.* 

The  necessary  inference  from  such 
a  series  of  unmasked  pretenses  is 
that  faith  in  Joseph  Smith,  as  the 
discoverer  and  translator  of  a  veritable 
1  Bible  preserved  in  an  antique  lan- 
guage, must  be  the  product  of  igno- 
rance, credulity,  tradition,  or  sheer 
Volition.  Of  substantial  basis  it  is 
thoroughly  destitute,  unless  the  Book 
of  Mormon  itseK  is  of  such  a  mar- 
velous character,  and  so  unaccountable 
on  ordinary  grounds,  as  to  afford 
such  a  basis.  That  the  book  is  not 
thus  distinguished  will  be  shown  in 
due  course. 

1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  xxxv. 


OF  MORMONISM  29 

In  the  fourth  place,  the  high  pre- 
tensions of  Joseph  Smith  in  relation 
to  the  Book  of  Mormon  must  be  re- 
garded as  most  seriously  damaged  by 
the  historical  demonstration  that,  to  a 
conspicuous  degree,  the  groundwork  of 
that  book  was  borrowed  from  a  ro- 
mantic story  of  Solomon  Spaulding 
entitled  Manuscript  Found.  This  was 
begun  in  1811  or  1812  at  Conneaut, 
Ohio,  was  left  for  a  time  in  the  print- 
ing office  of  Patterson  in  Pittsburgh, 
was  probably  taken  thence  to  Amity, 
Pennsylvania,  to  be  retouched,  and 
was  sent  anew  to  Patterson's  establish- 
ment shortly  before  the  death  of  the 
author  in  1816.*  As  first  planned, 
Spaulding's  story  contained  an  account 
of  a  party  of  voyagers  who  left  Rome 
in  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  were 
driven  ashore  on  the  American  con- 
tinent,   where    one    of   their   number 

1  See  the  very  careful  review  of  the  matter  by  A.  T.  Schroeder, 
The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  Reexamined  in  Its  Relation  to 
Spaulding's  Manuscript  Foimd. 


30  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

left  a  narrative  of  their  travels,  as 
also  of  Indian  wars  and  customs, 
which  narrative  Spaulding  assumes  to 
have  discovered  and  translated.  The 
story  in  this  form  came  into  the 
possession  of  E.  D.  Howe  in  1834, 
and  then  passed  out  of  sight  until 
it  accidentally  fell  into  the  possession 
of  President  Fairchild,  of  Oberlin,  in 
1884,  and  was  deposited  in  the  college 
library.  In  the  later  and  better  remem- 
bered form,  as  being  that  from  which 
the  author  often  read  to  his  friends, 
the  story  was  carried  further  back, 
the  voyagers  were  represented  as  start- 
ing from  Jerusalem,  and  an  effort  was 
made  to  reproduce  the  antique  biblical 
style.  In  this  respect  the  later  form 
of  the  story  was  widely  contrasted 
with  the  earlier.  Several  witnesses, 
shortly  after  the  appearance  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  affirmed,  in  the 
most  explicit  terms,  that  the  Spaulding 
story  to  which  they  had  listened  had 


OF  MORMONISM  31 

this  peculiar  cast.  Moreover,  the 
testimony  of  the  brother  of  Solomon 
Spaulding,  of  his  business  partner,  and 
of  several  others  assures  us  that  the 
story  in  this  form  represented  the 
voyagers  to  America  as  being  Jews 
and  as  starting  from  Jerusalem.  Herein 
it  corroborates  the  statement  of  Howe, 
who  says  that  the  Oberlin  manuscript 
was  shown  to  several  of  the  witnesses 
whom  he  cites  and  was  characterized 
by  them  as  the  earlier  and  discarded 
form  of  the  Spaulding  romance.*  It 
is  utterly  vain,  therefore,  for  Mormon 
apologists,  as  they  have  been  wont 
to  do,  to  plead  the  unlikeness  of  the 
Oberlin  writing  to  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon as  disproving  the  obligations  of 
Joseph  Smith  to  Spaulding's  manu- 
script. It  affords  not  the  slightest 
installment  of  a  disproof  of  substantial 
obligations.  The  most  that  could  be 
alleged  would  be  that  its  style  is  in 

1  Mormonism  Unveiled,  p.  288. 


32  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

contrast  with  that  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  The  contrast,  however,  may 
be  explained  by  the  twofold  fact  that 
Spaulding  in  the  later  version  of  his 
story  wrote  of  set  purpose  in  a  pe- 
culiar style,  and  that  Joseph  Smith, 
in  working  over  the  materials  fur- 
nished by  Spaulding,  conformed  them 
to  a  very  appreciable  degree  to  his 
own  habits  of  expression. 

When  the  Book  of  Mormon  began 
to  be  circulated  those  who  had  listened 
to  the  Spaulding  story,  with  its  pe- 
culiar names  and  its  antique  biblical 
style,  were  at  once  struck  with  the 
close  resemblance  between  the  two 
writings,  and  several  of  them  have 
witnessed  to  that  effect.  John  Spauld- 
ing, to  whom  his  brother  Solomon 
read  passages  of  his  Manuscript  Found, 
says:  ''It  was  an  historical  romance  of 
the  first  settlers  of  America,  endeavor- 
ing to  show  that  the  American  Indians 
are  descended  from  the  Jews,  or  the 


OF  MORMONISM  33 

lost  tribes.  It  gave  a  detailed  account 
of  their  journey  from  Jerusalem  by 
land  and  sea,  till  they  arrived  in 
America  under  the  command  of  Nephi 
and  Levi.  They  afterward  had  con- 
tentions and  quarrels  and  separated 
into  two  distinct  nations,  one  of  which 
he  denominated  Nephites  and  the  other 
Lamanites.  Cruel  and  bloody  wars 
ensued,  in  which  great  multitudes  were 
slain.  ...  I  have  recently  read  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  and,  to  my  great 
surprise,  I  find  nearly  the  same  his- 
torical matter,  names,  etc.,  as  they 
were  in  my  brother's  writings.  I 
well  remember  that  he  wrote  in  the 
old  style  and  commenced  about  every 
sentence  with,  ^And  it  came  to  pass,' 
or  'Now  it  came  to  pass,'  the  same  as 
in  the  Book  of  Mormon."*  Joseph 
Miller  of  Amity,  Pennsylvania,  noting 
the  fact  that  he  often  heard  Spaulding 

>  This  expression  is  repeated  more  than  forty  times  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Mormon  Bible. 


34  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

read  from  his  manuscript,  remarks: 
''I  had  the  Book  of  Mormon  in  my 
house  for  about  six  months  for  the 
purpose  of  comparing  it  with  my 
recollection  of  the  lost  Manuscript 
Found,  and  I  unhesitatingly  say  that 
a  great  part  of  the  historical  part  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  is  identical  with 
the  manuscript,  and  I  firmly  believe 
that  the  manuscript  is  the  foundation 
of  the  whole  concern."  Henry  Lake, 
who  was  partner  with  Solomon  Spauld- 
ing  in  rebuilding  a  forge  at  Conneaut, 
spent  many  hours  in  hearing  him 
read  from  his  manuscript.  'This 
book,'^  he  says,  ^'represented  the  Amer- 
ican Indians  as  the  lost  tribes,  gave 
an  account  of  their  leaving  Jerusalem, 
their  contentions  and  wars,  which  were 
many  and  great.  One  time,  when  he 
was  reading  to  me  the  tragic  account 
of  Laban,  I  pointed  out  to  him  what 
I  considered  an  inconsistency,  which 
he  promised  to  correct;  but  by  re- 


OF  MORMONISM  35 

ferring  to  the  Book  of  Mormon  I 
find,  to  my  surprise,  it  stands  there 
just  as  he  read  it  to  me  then.  ...  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the 
historical  part  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon is  principally,  if  not  wholly,  taken 
from  The  Manuscript  Found.  I  well 
recollect  telling  Mr.  Spaulding  that  the 
so  frequent  use  of  the  words  'And  it 
came  to  pass,^  'Now  it  came  to  pass,' 
rendered  it  ridiculous."  Hiram  Lake, 
son  of  the  foregoing,  testifies:  ''My 
father  told  me  that  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  unquestionably  derived 
from  the  Spaulding  manuscript.  Since 
1834  I  have  conversed  with  Aaron 
Wright,  John  N.  Miller,  and  Nathan 
Howard,  old  residents  here  [Conneaut], 
now  deceased,  all  of  whom  lived  here 
in  1811  and  1812,  and  who  had  heard 
Spaulding's  manuscript  read,  and  they 
told  me  they  believed  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  derived  from  Spaulding's 
Manuscript  Found.     Some  or  all  of 


36  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

these  persons  made  affidavits  to  this 
effect  which  were  pubUshed  in  a  book 
called  Mormonism  Unveiled,  edited  by 
E.  D.  Howe,  of  Painesville,  Ohio." 
Hiram  Gould,  referring  to  the  same 
persons,  affirms:  '^I  heard  them  all 
say  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
undoubtedly  taken  from  a  manuscript 
written  by  Solomon  Spaulding."  Oliver 
Smith,  to  whom  Spaulding,  while  stop- 
ping at  his  house,  read  one  hundred 
or  more  pages  of  the  romance,  makes 
this  statement:  ^When  the  Book  of 
Mormon  came  into  the  neighborhood 
and  I  heard  the  historical  part  of  it 
related,  I  at  once  said  that  it  was 
the  writing  of  Solomon  Spaulding."* 
Very  significant  is  the  exclamation 
which  sprang  from  the  lips  of  Squire 
Wright  when,  in  1832,  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  read  in  public  at  Con- 


1  All  of  the  above  testimonies  are  given  by  Mrs.  Ellen  E.  Dick- 
inson, New  Light  on  Mormonism,  appendix.  See  also  Howe, 
Mormonism  Unveiled,  pp.  278-288. 


OP  MORMONISM  37 

neaut:  ''Old  come  to  pass  has  come 
to  life  again  !''^ 

It  amounts,  we  judge,  to  a  his- 
torical demonstration  that  the  manu- 
script story  of  Solomon  Spaulding 
served  as  an  antecedent  and  ground- 
work of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Con- 
siderable liberty  may  have  been  used 
by  Joseph  Smith,  or  by  his  accom- 
plice, or  by  both  in  modifying  details 
and  introducing  supplementary  ma- 
terials, but  that  the  general  framework 
and  wide  stretches  of  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  were 
borrowed  from  Spaulding  is  not  open 
to  reasonable  doubt. 

This  conclusion  holds  whether  or 
not  any  reliable  evidence  is  at  hand 
as  to  the  medium  through  which 
Joseph  Smith  was  brought  into  pos- 
session of  the  Spaulding  manuscript, 
or  enabled  to  use  its  contents  very 
largely  in  shaping  the  Book  of  Mor- 

>  T.  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Palmyra,  p.  449. 


38  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

mon.  As  other  noted  crimes  have 
gone  undetected,  so  might  a  carefully 
concealed  theft  in  this  connection. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is 
evidence  as  to  the  medium  in  question, 
which,  if  not  demonstrative,  affords  a 
basis  for  a  thoroughly  probable  in- 
ference. A  sufficient  list  of  data  points 
to  Sidney  Rigdon  as  the  man  who 
helped  Joseph  Smith,  by  supplying 
him  with  the  highly  imaginative  story 
of  Spaulding,  to  pass  on  from  his 
empty  bluff  about  a  Golden  Bible  to 
an  appearance  of  a  real  discovery. 
That  this  preacher,  who  was  primarily 
connected  with  the  Baptists,  and  then 
aflBliated  with  the  Disciples,  was  none 
too  conscientious  for  a  performance 
of  this  kind,  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
of  his  cooperation  with  Smith,  as 
mentioned  above,  in  an  outrage  upon 
the  integrity  of  the  biblical  text.  That 
he  had  opportunity  for  the  knavish 
performance  is  certified  by  his  knOwn 


OF  MOKMONISM  39 

access  to  the  printing  establishment  of 
Patterson  in  Pittsburgh.  He  may  not 
have  been  employed  at  any  time  in 
that  establishment,  but  it  is  ascer- 
tained that  he  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  Lambdin,  who  was  with  Patterson 
from  1812  to  1823,  and  so  in  all 
likelihood  had  means  of  both  knowing 
about  and  seeing  the  Spaulding  manu- 
script. Among  the  evidences  that  he 
improved  his  chance  to  get  the  man- 
uscript into  his  possession  are  the 
following:  Joseph  Miller  of  Amity, 
Pennsylvania,  who  acted  the  part  of 
a  friend  in  need  to  Spaulding  in  his 
last  days,  says  he  told  him  ''there 
was  a  man  named  Sidney  Rigdon 
about  the  office  [of  Patterson],  and 
they  thought  he  had  stolen  the  man- 
uscript.''^ The  conviction  of  Mrs. 
Spaulding,  as  expressed  a  number  of 
years  later,  that  the  manuscript  was 
left  among  the  efifects  of  her  deceased 

*  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Palmyra,  p.  442. 


40  A  FOUEPOLD  TEST 

husband  may  be  quoted  in  opposition 
to  this  report  by  Miller;  but  it  is 
quite  possible  that  she  did  not  know, 
or  had  forgotten,  the  fact  that  the 
writing  had  been  sent  a  second  time 
to  the  office  of  Patterson.  That  Rigdon 
obtained  possession  of  it  is  very  def- 
initely affirmed  by  John  Winter,  M.D. 
He  says  that  Rigdon  showed  it  to 
him  while  in  his  study  in  1822  or 
1823.  The  daughter  of  Dr.  Winter 
testifies:  ^'I  have  frequently  heard  my 
father  speak  of  Rigdon  having  Spauld- 
ing's  manuscript,  and  that  he  had 
gotten  it  from  the  printer  to  read  as 
a  curiosity.''^  Mrs.  Amos  Dunlap  in 
1826-27,  while  visiting  at  the  house 
of  Rigdon,  saw  him  reading  a  man- 
uscript which  he  was  accustomed  to 
keep  locked  up  in  a  trunk,  and  heard 
him  say,  in  response  to  the  impatient 
remark  of  his  wife  that  she  would 
like  to  bum  the  thing  up,   ^It  will 

*  Liim,  p.  67;  Schroeder,  pp.  22,  23. 


OF  MORMONISM  41 

be  a  great  thing  some  day/'^  There 
is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  this 
was  other  than  the  manuscript  which 
Dr.  Winter  saw  in  Rigdon's  study 
several  years  before.  The  Rev.  Adam- 
son  Bentley  wrote  in  1841:  ^T  know 
that  Sidney  Rigdon  told  me  there  was 
a  book  coming  out,  the  manuscript  of 
which  had  been  found  engraved  on 
gold  plates,  as  much  as  two  years 
before  the  Mormon  book  made  its 
appearance  or  had  been  heard  of  by 
me.^'  This  statement,  though  given  to 
the  public  more  than  a  score  of  years 
before  the  death  of  Rigdon,  was  never 
contradicted  by  him.*  How  should 
Rigdon  at  that  date  have  had  knowl- 
edge of  the  prospective  forthcoming 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon?  Taken  in 
connection  with  the  testimony  as  to 
his  prior  possession  of  the  Spaulding 
manuscript,   and  the  well-established 


1  Bchroeder,  p.  24. 
« Ibid.,  p.  23. 


42  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

indebtedness  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
to  that  writing,  Rigdon's  forecast  is 
plain  historical  evidence  that  he  had 
come  into  collusion  with  Joseph  Smith 
and  had  supplied  him  with  the  specified 
writing  as  the  groundwork  of  his 
fabulous  Bible.  This  conclusion  is 
confirmed  by  evidence  that  Rigdon 
was  away  from  home  for  considerable 
intervals,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Smith,  during  the  period  in  which 
the  Book  of  Mormon  was  being  made 
ready  for  publication.  The  remark  of 
V.  Rudolph  is  on  record  ''that  during 
the  winter  previous  to  the  appearance 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  Rigdon  was  in 
the  habit  of  spending  weeks  away  from 
his  home,  going  no  one  knew  where. ''^ 
Pomeroy  Tucker,  who  was  on  the  ground 
at  the  time,  notes  that  a  mysterious 
stranger  was  seen  at  the  Smith  res- 
idence  in   1827   and  again   in   1828.^ 


1  Mrs.  Dickinson,  New  light  on  Mormonism,  p.  252. 
>  The  Origin  of  Mormonism,  pp.  28,  46. 


OF  MOEMONISM  43 

Abel  Chase,  a  near  neighbor  of  Smith's, 
reports:  ^'I  saw  Rigdon  at  Smith's 
at  different  times  with  considerable 
intervals  between/'  Lorenzo  Saunders, 
another  neighbor,  says,  ^'I  saw  Rigdon 
at  Smith's  several  times,  and  the  first 
visit  was  more  than  two  years  before 
the  Book  appeared."^ 

To  complete  the  historical  demon- 
stration of  the  complicity  of  Rigdon 
with  Smith  in  concocting  the  Book 
of  Mormon  two  points  need  to  be 
added.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  a  strain  of  the  Camp- 
bellite  or  Disciples'  teaching,  in  which 
Rigdon  had  been  indoctrinated,  per- 
vades the  Mormon  Bible.  Such  char- 
acteristic features  as  stress  upon  im- 
mersion as  the  sole  legitimate  form 
of  baptism,  great  emphasis  on  the 
eJEcacy  of  baptism,  while  a  very 
moderate  view  is  taken  of  the  virtue 
of  the    eucharist,  and  a  rather  pro- 

« Schroeder,  p.  30. 


44  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

nounced  expectation  of  the  coming  and 
millennial  reign  of  Christ,  are  un- 
equivocally reproduced.  The  second 
point  concerns  the  subsequent  relation 
of  Rigdon  to  Smith.  The  former  was 
shown  considerable  deference  and  in 
various  relations  was  treated  as  only 
second  to  Smith.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  was  subjected  to  such  hu- 
miliations as  a  high-spirited  man  could 
scarcely  have  endured  who  was  not 
rendered  comparatively  helpless  by 
consciousness  of  complicity  in  fraud. 
So  Linn  argues  with  a  good  show  of 
reason.  ^The  iron  hand,''  he  says, 
^Vith  which  Smith  repressed  Rigdon 
from  the  date  of  their  arrival  in 
Ohio  afifords  strong  proof  of  Rigdon's 
complicity  in  the  Bible  plot,  and  of 
the  fact  that  he  stood  to  his  accomplice 
in  the  [relation  of  a  burglar  to  his  mate, 
where  the  burglar  has  both  the  boodle 
and  the  secret  in  his  possession.''^ 

1  The  Story  of  the  Mormons,  p.  132. 


OF  MOEMONISM  45 

As  we  have  taken  pains  to  state, 
proof  of  the  indebtedness  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon  to  the  romance  of  Solomon 
Spaulding  is  of  much  greater  import 
than  the  determination  of  the  question 
whether  Rigdon  served  as  the  inter- 
mediary between  the  two  writings. 
We  cannot  forbear  the  judgment,  how- 
ever, that  the  data  which  make  for 
an  affirmative  answer  to  this  question 
are  really  conclusive. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that 
the  Spaulding  manuscript  enters  into 
the  case  against  Mormonism  rather  as 
as  auxiliary  than  as  a  fundamental. 
It  helps  to  explain  how  the  young 
man  who  was  given  to  the  telling  of 
big  stories,  who  made  a  pretense 
of  handling  magical  instrumentalities, 
who  contradicted  himself  in  his  ref- 
erences to  the  plates,  and  who  later 
indulged  in  capital  instances  of  down- 
right faking,  was  furnished  with  the 
idea,  the  framework,   and  to  a  con- 


46  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

siderable  extent  the  specific  contents 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  In  strictness, 
however,  the  supposed  function  of  the 
given  document  in  originating  the 
Book  of  Mormon  is  no  necessary  basis 
of  an  adverse  verdict.  The  proof  of 
fraudulent  pretense  on  the  part  of 
Joseph  Smith  is  not  dependent  upon 
verifying  that  function.  This  will  be 
made  to  appear  in  the  remainder  of 
this  essay,  and  especially  in  the  section 
immediately  following. 


PART  II 
THE  CRITICAL  TEST 


47 


PART  II 
THE  CRITICAL  TEST 

The  indubitable  characteristics  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  afford  the  most 
conclusive  refutation  of  the  claims  of 
Joseph  Smith  in  relation  to  its  dis- 
covery and  translation.  Should  all 
other  hnes  of  evidence  be  put  out 
of  sight,  a  critical  mind  would  find 
in  the  book  itself  overwhelming  proof 
of  its  being  no  antique  reahty,  but  a 
modem  fraudulent  concoction.  The 
evidences  of  its  recent  date  permeate 
the  book  and  are  absolutely  decisive. 

To  begin  with,  in  the  so-called  Book 
of  Mormon  things  pertaining  to  the 
scientific  or  natural  order  are  given  a 
false  and  arbitrary  setting.  The  mar- 
iner's compass,  or  an  instrument  ful- 
filling an  identical  purpose,  is  brought 
into  service  six  hundred  years  before 

49 


50  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

the  Christian  era/  At  a  time  when 
the  sun  was  universally  supposed  to 
move  round  the  earth,  the  opposite 
or  Copernican  theory  is  represented 
as  being  an  established  truth.  '^Sure 
it  is  the  earth  that  moveth  and  not 
the  sun. "2  Cows,  asses,  horses,  sheep, 
swine,  and  elephants  are  represented 
as  abounding  on  American  soil.'  The 
statement  is  wide  of  the  truth.  At 
the  given  date  the  horse  and  the 
elephant  existed  only  as  fossil  remains 
of  extinct  species;  and  as  for  cows, 
sheep,  and  swine,  the  nearest  of  kin 
to  them  in  the  country  were  the  bison, 
the  musk-ox,  the  big-horn  sheep,  and 
the  peccary,  belonging  for  the  most 
part  to  Umited  districts  and  incapable 
of  domestication.* 

:-/m;      V<...   1^^     ^..^^■^••^'^'^' 

1  Alma,  xvii,  12,  p.  314;  l^ephi,  v,  4,  p.  33.    Here,  as  elsewhere, 
we  cite  from  the  fifth  European  e^^^ofi,  1854. 

2  Helaman,  iv,  8,  p.  421. 

«  1  Nephi,  V,  45,  p.  44;  Ether,  iv,  3,  p.  533.      cfkt-^  ^U9 
*  Edward  J.  Payne,  History  of  the  New  World  Called  America, 
i,  283-290.    The  statement  of  Payne  relative  to  the  horse  and  the 
elephant  is  made  on  the  authority  of  Darwin.    Recent  naturalists 
have  generally  been  in  full  agreement  with  the  statement. 


OF  MORMONISM  51 

In  the  second  place,  New  Testament 
events  are  represented  as  being  antici- 
pated by  religious  leaders  in  America 
with  a  definiteness  and  clarity  which 
put  to  shame  the  prophetic  foresight  of 
the  most  illuminated  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament seers.  No  competent  biblical 
critic  in  the  world  could  fail  to  dis- 
cover that  we  have  here  a  transcript 
from  the  New  Testament  audaciously 
set  forth  as  matter  of  foresight.  In 
scores  of  particulars  this  is  made 
evident.  The  father  of  Nephi  is  repre- 
sented as  able  to  declare  at  Jerusalem 
that  the  Messiah  should  come  in  six 
hundred  years;  that  a  messenger,  who 
should  acknowledge  himself  not  worthy 
to  unloose  the  latchet  of  his  shoe, 
should  go  before  him  in  the  wilderness; 
that  this  messenger  should  baptize  in 
Bethabara,  beyond  Jordan;  that  he 
should  baptize  the  Messiah,  and  char- 
acterize him  as  the  Lamb  of  God 
appointed  to  take  away  the  sins  of 


52  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

the  world.^  At  a  period  when  no 
saint  or  sage  in  Palestine  had  the 
least  abiUty  to  state  such  things,  it 
is  said  to  have  been  a  matter  clearly 
understood  in  America  that  the  Mes- 
siah would  bear  the  name  of  ''Jesus 
Christ  the  Son  of  God'';^  that  his 
mother  would  be  the  Virgin  Mary;^ 
that  he  would  be  scourged  and  cruci- 
fied and  would  rise  from  the  dead 
on  the  third  day;*  that  his  cause 
would  be  carried  forward  by  twelve 
apostles  f  that  one  of  them,  bearing 
the  name  of  John,  should  write  the 
Apocalypse,^  that  the  law  of  Moses 
should  cease  to  be  in  force  after  the 
coming  of  Christ;'  and  that  Israel 
should  be  like  branches  broken  off 
from  the  olive  tree,  though  destined 

1 1  Nephi,  iii,  3-5,  p.  17.    Xj,)0>   ».  V4 

2 2  Nephi,  xi,  4,  p.  97.  a^^Vj  i*\ ,     p.'\\ 

>  Mosiah,  i,  14,  p.  150;  Alma,  v,  2,  p.  227. 

4^Mosiah,  i,  U)p.  150.    ^.:  ^       p.  'yl\^  (  t^.>      ,-  ('  \ 

6  1  NepHi;  iu,  19.  p.  21.  ^\y^u. ..  p   .  f       ^  '         '  '""''- 
"  1  Nephi,  iii,  52,  53,  p.  29.    The  Apocalypse  is  not  named,  but 

clearly  enough  indicated.  ^*f^2''^ 

7  2^Nephi,  xi,  7,  p.  97. 


OF  MORMONISM  53 

later  to  be  grafted  in/  Respecting 
some  of  these  things,  the  apostles  were 
still  in  need  of  light  after  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  The  whole  list  falls  within 
an  horizon  in  essential  contrast  with 
that  of  Old  Testament  prediction. 
From  beginning  to  end  it  plainly  is 
history  set  forth  by  a  barefaced  fiction 
as  matter  of  prophetical  foresight. 

In  the  third  place  the  claim  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  to  be  an  antique 
production  is  squarely  refuted  by  the 
fact  that  it  is  permeated  with  the 
phraseology  of  the  King  James  Version 
of  the  Bible,  a  version  that  did  not 
exist  till  about  twelve  hundred  years 
after  the  Golden  Bible  of  Joseph 
Smith,  Jr.,  was  presumed  to  have  been 
deposited  in  a  spot  conveniently  near 
to  the  future  residence  of  the  Smith 
family.  This  point  cannot  be  better 
elucidated  than  in  the  following  words 
of  one  who  was  converted  to  Mor- 

« 1  Nephi,  iii,  7,  p.  18. 


54  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

monism  in  youth,  but  later  outgrew  it 
and  subjected  it  to  a  trenchant  crit- 
icism: 'Trom  page  2  to  page  428, 
pretending  to  embrace  a  period  from 
600  B.  C.  to  A.  D.,  I  have  counted 
no  less  than  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  direct  quotat  ons  from  the  New 
Testament;  some  of  them  paragraphs 
of  verses,  some  of  them  sentences 
from  verses.  Besides  these  there  are 
whole  chapters  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament  copied  verbatim  and 
often  not  acknowledged. '^^  In  the 
face  of  such  an  ample  borrowing,  in 
respect  of  phraseology,  from  the  age 
of  the  first  Stuart  King  of  England, 
it  is  no  cause  for  surprise  to  find  such 
a  reminiscence  of  WiUiam  Shakespeare 
as  is  contained  in  this  expression: 
^The  cold  and  silent  grave  whence 
no  traveler  can  return. ''^ 
In  the  fourth   place,   the   Book  of 

1  John  Hyde,  Mormonism:  Its  Leaders  and  Designs,  1857,  pp. 
233,  234. 

2  2  Nephi,  i,  V  p.  55. 


OF  MORMONISM  55 

Mormon  advertises  its  modern  origin 
by  the  use  of  dogmatic  phrases  and 
conceptions  essentially  foreign  to  an 
antique  Jewish  people,  but  quite  at 
home  in  evangelical  communions  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  It  represents 
such  expressions  as  '^the  atonement  of 
Christ/'^  and  ^^the  atoning  blood  of 
Christ/'*  as  already  naturalized  before 
the  Christian  era.  It  records  the 
broad  dogmatic  proposition  that  noth- 
ing short  of  an  infinite  atonement 
will  suffice  for  the  sins  of  the  world.' 
It  carries  back  to  a  remote  pre-Chris- 
tian age  the  language  of  modern 
revivalistic  fervor  in  that  it  represents 
Nephi  as  saying,  ''I  glory  in  my  Jesus, 
for  he  hath  redeemed  my  soul  from 
hell.''*  With  nearly  as  flagrant  dis- 
regard of  historic  conditions,  the  Book 
of  Mormon  introduces  such  terms  as 


1  Jacob,  iii,  4,  p.  122. 
a  Mosiah,  ii,  1,  p.  152. 
«  Alma,  xvi,  28,  p.  304. 
*2  Nephi,  xv,  p.  113. 


56  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

church,  dissenter,  and  Bible  (in  the 
sense  of  a  collection  of  sacred  books) 
long  before  the  time  in  which  they 
are  discernible  in  Jewish  usage.^  '  Mat- 
ters of  doctrine  which  ancient  Judaism 
never  settled,  and  in  large  part  n^er 
discussed,  but  which  were  at  the  front 
in  interdenominational  controversy  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury are  determined  with  the  utmost 
precision  in  this  pretended  translation 
from  long-buried  plates.  In  truth, 
Alexander  Campbell  was  not  charge- 
able with  any  great  excess  of  sarcasm 
when  he  wrote  in  1832:  ^The  prophet 
Smith,  through  his  stone  spectacles, 
wrote  on  the  plates  of  Nephi,  in  his 
Book  of  Mormon,  every  error  and 
almost  every  truth  discussed  in  New 
York  for  the  last  ten  years.  He 
decides  all  the  great  controversies — 
infant  baptism,  ordination,  the  Trinity, 

1 1  Nephi,  i,  36;   iii,  33,  40-53,   et  passim;  Helaman,  iv,  5;    3 
Nephi,  iii,  5;  2  Nephi,  xii,  6,  8. 


OF  MORMONISM  57 

regeneration,  repentance,  justification, 
the  fall  of  man,  the  atonement,  tran- 
substantiation,  fasting,  penance,  church 
government,  the  call  to  the  ministry, 
the  general  resurrection,  eternal  pun- 
ishment, who  may  baptize,  and  even 
the  question  of  free  masonry,  repub- 
Ucan  government,  and  the  rights  of 
man/'^ 

In  addition  to  the  glaring  displace- 
ment of  reputed  historical  matter  in 
these  different  lines,  the  Book  of 
Mormon  asks  us  to  believe  that  this 
continent  was  the  scene  of  a  widely 
disseminated  Jewish,  or,  rather,  Jewish- 
Christian,  civilization  for  six  hundred 
years,  and  for  a  good  part  of  the 
next  four  hundred  years  was  the  site 
of  a  flourishing  Christian  church  which 
was  set  forward  and  furnished  with  a 
full  quota  of  apostles  by  Christ  through 
the  medium  of  a  direct  personal  man- 
ifestation.   Now,  what  does  archaeology 

1  An  Analysis  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  p.  13. 


58  A  FOUKFOLn  TEST 

know  of  a  civilization  Hebrew  in  origin 
and  Christian  in  substance,  which  flour- 
ished on  the  American  continent  for 
the  period  of  a  thousand  years,  and 
which  retained  more  or  less  contact 
with  that  wing  of  the  immigrants  (the 
so-called  Lamanites)  that  is  reputed 
to  have  sunk  into  relative  barbarism 
and  to  have  become  what  is  known 
as  the  Indian  race?  Would  it  be  any- 
thing less  than  an  astounding  marvel 
that  a  people  like  the  Nephites,  who 
remained  keenly  cognizant  of  their  or- 
igin from  Jerusalem,  and  were  well 
advanced  in  the  arts,  should  have  left 
neither  reminiscence  of  their  Judaic 
descent  nor  memorial  of  their  Judaic 
or  Christian  civilization?  But  such  are 
the  facts.  There  are,  it  is  true,  indi- 
cations that  the  semicivilized  races  of 
the  Aztecs  and  Peruvians  were  pre- 
ceded by  peoples  who  had  developed 
no  little  skill  in  architecture.  But 
reliable  traces  of  a  Jewish  or  Christian 


OF  MORMONISM  59 

civilization  on  this  continent,  antedat- 
ing the  European  settlement,  have 
never  been  discovered.  At  least  they 
have  not  been  discovered  by  competent, 
sober-minded,  and  truth-telling  inves- 
tigators.*  The  entire  affluent  history  of 


1  See  D.  G.  Brinton,  On  the  Various  Supposed  Relations  Be- 
tween the  American  and  the  Asian  Races,  Reprinted  from  the 
Memoirs  of  the  International  Congress  of  Anthropology;  also  his 
book  on  The  American  Race.  Brinton,  who  ranks  among  the  fore- 
moet  investigators  of  Indian  antiquities,  while  expressing  appreci- 
ation for  the  learning  and  industry  which  such  writers  as  Adair  and 
Kingsborough  have  expended  on  the  theory  of  the  Hebrew  descent 
of  the  Indians,  makes  the  emphatic  statement:  "No  one  at  present 
would  acknowledge  himself  a  beUever  in  this  theory"  (The  American 
Race,  p.  18). 

The  results  attained  by  the  most  industrious  of  Mormon  apolo- 
gists in  no  wise  call  for  a  revision  of  Brinton's  judgment  (see  B.  H. 
Roberts,  New  Witness  for  God,  Vols.  II  and  III).  The  tokens  of 
a  prolonged  Hebrew  civilization  in  this  country  which  he  is  able 
to  adduce  reduce  to  some  pieces  of  parchment  bearing  Hebrew 
sentences,  found  at  Pittsfield,  and  a  tablet  inscribed  with  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  Hebrew,  discovered  at  Newark.  Neither  of 
these  memorials  is  proved  to  be  of  ancient  date;  and  even  if  that 
much  could  be  established  in  their  behalf,  the  evidence  furnished  by 
them  for  a  prolonged  Hebrew  civilization  in  America  would  amount 
to  nothing  as  against  the  opposing  evidence  contained  in  the 
native  languages.  As  well  suppose  the  Latin  language  to  have  left 
no  discoverable  trace  on  the  speech  of  Italy  as  to  suppose  tribes 
which  were  the  offshoots  of  a  civilized  Hebrew  race,  and  had  no 
vital  contact  with  any  other  race,  to  have  left  no  distinct  token  of 
their  Hebrew  antecedents  in  their  language.  As  to  Flood  stories 
analogous  to  the  Hebrew,  these  were  current  among  peoples  ante- 
dating the  national  existence  of  the  Hebrews  and  furnish  no  proof 
even  of  casual  contact  with  them.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
presence  of  such  a  figiire  as  Quetzalcoatl  in  the  Aztec,  or  Toltec, 


60  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

a  thousand  years,  we  must  conclude, 
tapered  down  to  nothing.  It  accom- 
plished no  adequate  purpose.  Joseph 
Smith,  it  is  true,  would  have  us  believe 
that  the  Golden  Bible  deposited  in  the 
hill  of  Cumorah  was  a  sufficient  end 
to  be  achieved  by  the  long  history. 
But  having  already  conclusive  rea- 
sons for  rejecting  his  estimate  of  that 
ambitious  romance,  we  find  in  the 
wretched  abortiveness  of  the  pretended 
history  an  additional  ground  for  rating 
it  as  a  baseless  fiction. 

Among  subsidiary  criticisms  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  place  may  be  given 
to  its  disagreement  with  the  verdict 
of  recent  scholarship  on  the  book  of 
Isaiah.  That  verdict  is  that  the  last 
twenty-seven  chapters  of  this  prophet- 
ical book  belong  to  the  period  of  the 
Babylonish  captivity.     The  Book  of 

mythology.  Divinities  plajdng  an  exceptional  role  are  found  in 
other  mythologies,  as  Osiris  in  the  Egs^ptian  and  Baldur  in  the 
Scandinavian.  To  explain  the  Mexican  god  on  the  score  of  the 
Hebrew  antecedents  of  his  worshipers  is  quite  gratuitous. 


OF  MORMONISM  61 

Mormon,  on  the  other  hand,  presumes 
that  these  chapters  were  extant  some 
generations  before  the  captivity — hav- 
ing been  written  by  Isaiah  the  son 
of  Amos — and  that  they  were  conveyed 
to  this  country  by  Nephi  six  hundred 
years  before  the  Christian  era.  The 
revised  view  of  the  book  of  Isaiah 
has  not  indeed  been  universally  adopted 
in  learned  circles,  but  the  movement 
of  free  scholarship  toward  it  for  several 
decades  has  been  very  pronounced.  So 
there  is  at  least  probable  ground  for 
convicting  the  Book  of  Mormon  of  a 
blunder  such  as  betrays  a  modem  hand 
in  its  production. 

Of  the  incredible  things  in  the  in- 
credible book  which  Joseph  Smith  pre- 
tended to  have  received  through  angelic 
ministration  no  item  is  perhaps  more 
fantastic  than  that  which  recounts  the 
voyage  of  the  Jaredites  to  America 
in  very  peculiarly  constructed  barges.^ 

1  Ether,  i. 


62  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

Anyone  who  can  believe  this  story 
ought  not  to  feel  obliged  to  challenge 
the  historicity  of  any  of  the  marvelous 
tales  of  Alice  in  Wonderland. 

In  addition  to  all  the  rest,  the 
claim  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  to  a 
sacred  character  is  discredited  by  its 
barrenness.  Apart  from  materials  pla-x 
giarized  from  the  Bible,  it  is  almost^ 
entirely  destitute  of  an  edifying  con- 
tent. Its  continual  iteration  in  slightly 
diversified  form  of  two  scenes,  the  one 
a  representation  of  disobedience  and 
chastisement,  and  the  other  containing 
a  description  of  repentance  and  renewed 
opportunity,  is  terribly  wearisome.  In 
its  doctrinal  teachings  it  has,  to  be 
sure,  a  number  of  respectable  tenets; 
but  the  doctrines  inculcated  are  not 
above  the  level  of  the  contemporary 
theology  from  which  we  are  authorized 
to  regard  them  as  borrowed,  and  in 
one  particular  there  is  a  descent  to 
the  plane  of  the  most  aberrant  think- 


OF  MORMONISM  63 

ing  of  the  time.  We  refer  to  the 
singular  notion  that  the  transgression 
of  Adam  was  one  of  the  most  necessary 
and  salutary  events  that  ever  hap- 
pened, since  otherwise  the  race  would 
have  continued  in  a  perfectly  static, 
poverty-stricken,  and  joyless  condition.^ 

Mormon  apologists  are  wont  to  make 
large  account  of  the  witnesses  to  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  or  to  the  reaHty  of 
the  plates  on  which  the  book  was 
alleged  to  have  been  based.  But  against 
the  accumulated  evidence  which  has 
been  presented  what  can  the  testimony 
of  the  witnesses  prove?  Plainly  noth- 
ing, except  that  the  witnesses  were 
deceived,  or  were  partners  in  deceit, 
or  were  the  subjects,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  of  both  orders  of  experience. 

The  witnesses  fall  into  two  groups, 
the  first  of  which  consisted  of  Oliver 
Cowdery,  David  Whitmer,  and  Martin 
Harris,  and  the  second  of  eight  per- 

» 2  Nephi,  i,  8,  pp.  68,  59. 


64  A  POUKFOLD  TEST 

sons,  all  of  whom,  with  the  exception 
of  Hiram  Page,  belonged  to  either  the 
Whitmer  or  the  Smith  family.  These 
men,  it  is  to  be  noticed,  with  scarcely 
an  exception,  were  so  closely  associated 
with  the  pseudo  prophet  in  his  Golden 
Bible  project,  almost  from  its  incep- 
tion, that  they  might  with  a  fair 
degree  of  propriety  be  styled  his  con- 
federates in  that  project.  Further,  it 
is  to  be  noticed  that  their  testimony 
is  not  given  in  the  form  of  personal 
affidavits.  The  three  and  the  eight 
subscribed  respectively  to  statements 
which  undoubtedly  Smith,  or  his  prin- 
cipal accomplice,  had  drawn  up  for 
them,  and  it  is  legitimate  to  suppose 
that  with  their  uncritical  turn  of  mind 
even  the  most  honest  among  them  did 
not  scrutinize  closely  the  terms  of  the 
statements. 

The  witnesses  of  the  first  group 
testified  that  they  were  shown  the 
plates   of   the   Book   of   Mormon   by 


OF  MORMONISM  65 

an  angel,  and  saw  the  writing  en- 
graved upon  them,  and  were  assured 
by  the  voice  of  God  that  it  had  been 
correctly  translated.  How  the  voice 
of  God  imparted  this  information, 
whether  through  an  inward  impression 
or  otherwise,  is  not  stated.  The  door 
is  left  open  to  the  supposition  that 
the  wish  to  accredit  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  the  effective  source  of 
the  voice.  As  respects  the  angel  bear- 
ing the  plates,  he  would  seem  to  have 
belonged  rather  to  the  sphere  of  sub- 
jective fancy  than  to  that  of  objective 
reality.  Smith  in  his  report  of  the 
matter  admits  that  Harris  experienced 
difficulty  in  getting  the  vision  of  the 
angel  and  the  plates  and,  moreover, 
stops  short  of  squarely  affirming  that 
he  really  obtained  the  vision^;  and 
Harris  too,  when  questioned  as  to 
whether  he  saw  the  reported  objects 
with  his  literal  sight,  felt  obliged  to 

1  Millennial  Star,  vol.  xiv,  supt.,  p.  19;  cited  by  Linn,  p.  80. 


66  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

reply  that  it  was  by  the  spiritual  eye 
or  the  eye  of  faith.^  Of  the  remaining 
two  witnesses  David  Whitmer  was 
doubtless  at  that  stage,  being  exceed- 
ingly visionary,  a  good  subject  for 
hypnotic  suggestion.  That  his  expe- 
rience may  have  been  of  this  order 
is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the 
vision,  instead  of  being  imposed  upon 
neutral  subjects,  was  wrought  out  in 
the  woods  by  prayer  and  stress.  On 
the  score  of  natural  eyesight  there  is 
no  apparent  reason  why  he  should  have 
seen  what  the  physical  eyes  of  Harris 
could  not  discover.  As  to  Oliver 
Cowdery,  who  had  acted  as  Smith's 
secretary  in  preparing  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  he  was  too  closely  allied 
with  his  principal  not  to  be  able  to 
testify  to  seeing  what  he  was  desired 
to  see.  It  is  not  improbable  that  he 
was  a  conscious  partner  in  the  fraud 
which  was  being  perpetrated.    His  after 

1  Tucker,  The  Rise  of  Mormonism,  p.  71. 


OF  MORMONISM  67 

career  proves  that  he  was  a  man  of 
very  shifty  character.  In  1838  the 
Mormons  cast  him  out  under  charges 
of  being  a  thief,  swindler,  liar,  and 
counterfeiter.^  At  the  same  date  they 
forced  out  David  Whitmer  and  painted 
his  character  also  in  black.  Harris 
too  was  consigned  to  the  outer  dark- 
ness. In  1837  Smith  reviled  him  as  a 
Negro  with  a  white  skin,  and  the  next 
year  denounced  him  as  a  ^liar  and 
swindler. "2  The  worth  of  a  judicial 
sentence  cannot,  of  course,  be  attached 
to  these  verdicts.  While  Cowdery  was 
doubtless  a  knave,  we  are  not  forbid- 
den to  believe  that  Whitmer  and  Harris 
were  weak  and  wrong-headed  rather 
than  unprincipled.  But  the  group  as  a 
whole  reduces,  on  examination,  to  a 
rather  beggarly  set  of  witnesses. 

The  second  group,  made  up  of  eight 
witnesses,  testify  simply  that  they  were 

1  Linn,  p.  81. 

a  Ibid.,  p.  84;  Gregg,  p.  24. 


68  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

shown  the  plates  by  Joseph  Smith,  Jr., 
and  handled  with  their  own  hands 
as  many  of  the  plates  as  the  said 
Smith  had  translated.  The  latter  state- 
ment, it  may  be  observed,  could  be 
signed  by  the  most  radical  disbeliever 
in  the  reputed  origin  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  As  to  being  shown  the 
plates,  that  is  quite  a  different  thing 
from  having  any  guaranty  as  to  the 
character  or  content  of  the  writing 
engraved  upon  them.  In  fact,  the 
testimony  of  this  whole  group  of  wit- 
nesses furnishes  no  evidence  that  plates 
serving  as  a  real  basis  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  were  in  existence.  Supposing 
plates  to  have  been  actually  seen  and 
handled,  the  only  rational  conclusion 
would  be  that  they  were  devised  for 
the  occasion;  and  for  witnesses  drawn 
from  the  Smith  and  Whitmer  families 
we  can  be  assured  that  a  very  clumsy 
device  would  have  answered  the  pur- 
pose.   It  would  not  have  needed  any- 


OF  MOEMONISM  69 

thing  so  well  executed  as  the  Kinder- 
hook  plates  referred  to  above.  It  may 
be  worth  adding  that  three  of  this 
group  finally  abandoned  Mormonism. 
Plainly  the  evidence  with  which  they 
had  been  favored  was  not  sufficient 
to  rivet  their  minds  to  the  Mormon 
system.  Of  the  five  remaining  members 
of  the  group  three  belonged  to  the 
Smith  family.  It  appears,  therefore, 
that,  apart  from  that  family,  only  two 
in  the  entire  list  of  witnesses  who 
signed  the  statements  dictated  by  Jo- 
seph Smith  remained  steadfast  adher- 
ents of  Mormonism.  It  may  not  be 
on  record  that  those  who  fell  away 
formally  withdrew  their  testimony;  but 
naturally  they  would  not  be  forward 
to  confess  themselves  to  have  been 
either  dupes  or  knaves. 

That  Smith  might  easily  have  im- 
posed upon  the  untrained  and  credulous 
men  whom  he  selected  as  witnesses 
is   suggested   by   the   case   of  James 


70  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

J.  Strang,  who  joined  the  Mormons 
shortly  before  the  assassination  of 
Smith,  in  1844,  and  who  went  on  to 
supervise  an  independent  community 
at  Voree,  Wisconsin,  which  later  was 
transferred  to  Beaver  Island  in  Lake 
Michigan.  Conceiving  that  some  an- 
tique plates  would  make  a  suitable 
embellishment  for  his  prophetical  mis- 
sion, he  set  about  to  supply  them,  and 
later  to  translate  the  characters  en- 
graved upon  them  by  the  aid  of 
urim  and  thummim  alleged  to  have 
been  brought  to  him  by  an  angel. 
Nor  did  he  fail  to  obtain  his  witnesses. 
Four  men  testified  that,  digging  accord- 
ing to  his  direction,  they  found  the 
plates.  The  names  of  these  witnesses 
are  recorded  as  Aaron  Smith,  J.  B. 
Wheelan,  James  M.  Van  Nostrand, 
and  Edward  Whitcomb.^  If  Strang 
could  thus  play  a  successful  ruse,  why 
not  Joseph  Smith  likewise? 

1  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Pahnyra,  pp.  312-319. 


OF  MOEMONISM  71 

Quite  enough  space  has  been  given 
to  the  so-called  'Witnesses."  As  was 
noted,  their  testimony,  in  the  face  of 
the  overwhelming  evidence  on  the 
origin  and  character  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  can  only  show  that  either 
they  were  deceived,  or  were  partners 
in  deceit,  or  belonged,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  both  to  the  class  of  dupes 
and  to  that  of  deceivers. 

Since  Joseph  Smith  is  convicted  of 
imposture  both  by  the  evidence  bear- 
ing on  the  production  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  and  by  the  contents  of  that 
book,  his  claim  to  a  prophetical  voca- 
tion is  completely  nullified  in  the  sight 
of  history  as  to  its  primary  and  basal 
credential;  and,  being  proved  guilty  of 
fraudulent  pretense  in  this  capital 
matter,  he  is  entitled  to  no  sort  of 
credence  in  connection  with  the  sub- 
sequent '^revelations'^  of  which  he 
claimed  to  be  the  mouthpiece.  It 
may  be  worth  while,  however,  to  take 


72  A  FOUEFOLD  TEST 

a  glance  at  these  so-called  revelations 
which  have  been  gathered  together  in 
the  book  constituting  the  second  great 
authority  of  the  Mormons,  The  Doc- 
trine and  Covenants  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints. 

It  can  hardly  escape  the  notice  of 
the  reader  that  in  respect  of  form  the 
^'revelations'^  are  not  adapted  to  sug- 
gest a  divine  source.  There  is  in 
them  a  large  element  of  rambling 
sermonic  discourse.  A  wordy  reli- 
giosity, a  mechanical  stringing  together 
of  phrases,  pictorial  representations, 
and  conceptions  borrowed  from  the 
Bible,  is  nearly  everywhere  in  evidence. 
There  is  rarely  a  direct  approach  to, 
or  an  economical  dealing  with,  the 
real  point  which  the  revelation  was 
designed  to  enforce.  In  short,  the 
style  of  the  revelations  implies  that  the 
Lord  who  gave  them  must  have  been 
singularly  lacking  in  business  capacity. 

Again  the  subject-matter  of  many 


OF  MORMONISM  73 

of  the  revelations  is  adapted  to  pro- 
voke the  smile  of  incredulity.  Things 
of  trivial  import,  matters  which  or- 
dinary common  sense  and  decent  exec- 
utive abiUty  might  be  regarded  as 
competent  to  dispose  of,  are  paraded 
with  the  solemn  sanction  of  divine 
mandates.  The  borders  of  the  burlesque 
are  sometimes  approached,  not  to  say 
plainly  crossed  over,  as,  for  instance, 
in  the  revelation  ordering  the  details 
of  a  stock  company  and  the  erection 
of  a  boarding  house  at  Nauvoo.^ 

Again,  the  tenor  of  one  and  another 
revelation  makes  a  mock  of  divine 
knowledge  and  foresight.  A  conspic- 
uous example  appears  in  the  divine 
message  dated  May,  1829.  This  was 
in  response  to  the  exigency  which  had 
arisen  through  the  loss  of  a  consider- 
able parcel  of  manuscript  containing 
the  first  part  of  the  so-called  translation 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon.    In  response 

» Doctrine  and  Covenants,  cxxiv. 


74  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

to  the  persistent  request  of  Martin 
Harris  he  was  given  permission  to 
show  the  curious  pages  to  his  wife 
and  a  few  others.  The  inclusion  of 
the  wife  was  a  poor  mark  of  discretion. 
Utterly  averse  to  her  husband's  as- 
sumption of  financial  responsibility  for 
what  she  regarded  as  an  insane  and 
wicked  project  she  took  pains  to  insure 
that  the  manuscript  should  never  see 
the  light  again.  At  least  this  is  the 
probable  conclusion.  To  be  sure,  Mrs. 
Harris  was  able  to  deny  that  she  had 
burned  up  the  vanished  pages.  But 
that  is  by  no  means  equivalent  to 
asserting  that  they  passed  beyond  her 
custody;  and  the  fact  that  no  trace 
was  ever  gained  of  what  would  natur- 
ally have  been  conserved  as  a  curiosity 
by  anyone  in  a  less  intense  mood 
than  Mrs.  Harris  makes  for  the  con- 
clusion that  they  did  not  pass  outside 
of  her  jurisdiction.  By  this  outcome 
Joseph    Smith    was    thrown    into    a 


OF  MORMONISM  75 

quandary.  He  knew  that  his  magic 
spectacles  were  not  equal  to  supplying 
an  exact  duplicate  of  the  lost  pages, 
and  he  was  haunted  by  the  suspicion 
that  those  pages  might  be  brought 
forward,  in  case  their  subject-matter 
should  be  given  out  a  second  time,  to 
convict  him  of  false  pretense.  So  he 
availed  himself  of  a  ' 'revelation"  which 
warned  him  that  designing  men  had 
planned  to  change  and  pervert  the 
contents  of  the  missing  pages,  and 
directed  him  to  substitute  other  matter 
for  that  which  they  contained.^  But 
how  could  these  designing  men  tamper 
with  the  writing  on  the  specified  pages 
without  leaving  the  marks  of  their 
tampering?  and  how  could  they  expect 
to  accomplish  anything  without  pro- 
ducing the  precise  manuscript  which 
Harris  took  away  and  which  was  in 
his  own  handwriting?  How  could  they 
make  an  abusive  use  of  a  manuscript 

1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  x. 


76  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

which  all  the  known  facts  indicate 
was  beyond  the  use  or  abuse  of  any 
party  outside  the  Harris  domicile? 
Manifestly,  the  Lord  who  dictated  the 
given  revelation  had  no  knowledge  of 
the  actual  conditions. 

Still  further,  the  pretended  revela- 
tions contain  a  sufficient  quota  of  pre- 
dictions which  the  course  of  events  has 
stamped  as  empty  vaporings.  Thus, 
in  1832,  the  solemn  declaration  was 
made:  ''Not  many  days  hence  the 
earth  shall  tremble  and  reel  to  and 
fro  as  a  drunken  man,  and  the  sun 
shall  hide  his  face.''^  An  equally  poor 
venture  in  prophesying  was  made  when 
Smith  sent  a  messenger  to  New  York, 
Albany,  and  Boston,  to  warn  the  people 
of  those  cities  that,  in  case  of  their 
rejecting  the  things  announced,  their 
utter  desolation  was  impending  and  the 
hour   of    their    judgment    was    nigh.^ 


1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  Ixxxviii,  87. 

2  Ibid.,  Ixxxiv,  112-115. 


OF  MORMONISM  77 

Truly  ridiculous  is  that  revelation  made 
to  appear  which  appointed  John  Whit- 
mer  historian/  when  it  is  joined  with 
the  subsequent  dismissal  of  the  ap- 
pointee with  this  contemptuous  char- 
acterization of  him  by  Smith  and 
Rigdon:  ^^We  never  supposed  you 
capable  of  writing  a  history.  "^  A 
reference  might  also  be  made  to  the 
prediction  that  the  discomfited  Latter 
Day  Saints  in  Missouri  should  forth- 
with begin  to  prevail  against  their  ene- 
mies,' though  in  this  instance  a  chance 
was  prudently  reserved  to  lay  the  blame 
of  the  unmitigated  disaster  which  en- 
sued to  the  misconduct  of  the  Saints. 

That  a  man  much  given  to  prophesy- 
ing should  occasionally  make  an  ap- 
proach to  picturing  a  future  unfoldment 
is  no  ground  for  surprise.  We  are 
therefore  far  from  discovering  in  Joseph 
Smith's  alleged  prediction  respecting 

»  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  xlvii. 

3  Millennial  Star,  rsd,  p.  133;  cited  by  Linn,  p.  114. 

*  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  dii,  6. 


78  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

the  Civil  War  any  token  of  prophetical 
vocation.^  Not  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that  the  prediction  seems  not  to  have 
been  published  till  long  after  its  osten- 
sible date  (December  25,  1832),  it 
could  easily  have  been  suggested  by 
the  slavery  agitation  going  on  at  that 
time,  and  especially  by  the  nullification 
ordinance  of  South  Carolina,  which  was 
passed  in  that  very  year  and  was  a 
matter  for  earnest  discussion  at  the 
time  the  revelation  purports  to  have 
been  given.  Moreover,  the  forecast  of 
the  Civil  War  was  conjoined  with 
prognostications  that  had  no  fulfill- 
ment. What  really  is  disclosed  here  is 
a  pretender  whose  venture  happened 
to  be  partially  successful. 

Among  the  revelations  which  are 
alleged  to  have  been  vouchsafed  to 
the  founder  of  Mormonism  there  is 
none  which  so  effectually  wrecks  his 
claims    as    that    in    authorization    of 


1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  Ixxxvii. 


OF  MORMONISM  79 

polygamy.  Its  very  content  is  a 
fundamental  refutation  of  those  claims. 
But  that  is  a  point  for  subsequent 
consideration.  What  we  need  to  note 
in  this  connection  is  the  flagrant  self- 
contradiction  which  it  involved.  In 
the  Book  of  Mormon,  a  writing  reputed 
to  be  in  its  original  form  almost  too 
sacred  for  the  sight  of  mortal  eyes,  we 
have  this  unequivocal  condemnation 
and  prohibition  of  polygamy:  ' 'Behold 
David  and  Solomon  truly  had  many 
wives  and  concubines,  which  thing 
was  abominable  before  me,  saith  the 
Lord.  .  .  .  Wherefore  I  the  Lord  God 
will  not  suffer  that  this  people  shall 
do  like  unto  them  of  old.  Wherefore 
my  brethren  hear  me,  and  hearken 
to  the  word  of  the  Lord;  for  there 
shall  not  any  man  among  you  have 
save  it  be  one  wife;  and  concubines  he 
shall  have  none;  for  I  the  Lord  God 
delighteth  in  the  chastity  of  women.''^ 

>  Jacob,  ii,-  OTP-  HS. 


80  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Furthermore,  in  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, the  Lamanites,  though  repre- 
sented as  justly  abhorred  for  serious 
offenses,  are  emphatically  commended 
for  their  avoidance  of  polygamy  and 
concubinage.  Because  of  this  one  vir- 
tue it  is  declared  of  them,  ^^the  Lord 
God  will  not  destroy  them,  and  one 
day  they  shall  become  a  blessed  peo- 
ple."^ Twice  over  in  reputed  revela- 
tions Smith  used  language,  in  1831, 
which  impHes  the  standpoint  of  monog- 
amy. What  else,  taken  as  honest 
speech,  can  these  sentences  mean? 
^Thou  shalt  love  thy  wife  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  shalt  cleave  unto  her 
and  none  else.'^^  ^  ^Marriage  is  or- 
dained of  God  unto  man;  wherefore 
it  is  lawful  that  he  should  have  one 
wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
flesh. ''^  In  face  of  all  this,  in  a 
revelation   bearing   date   of   July   12, 

1  Jacob,  ii,  9,  p.  119. 

2  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  xlii,  22. 
«  Ibid.,  xUx,  15,  16. 


OF  MORMONISM  81 

1843  (but  first  published  at  Salt  Lake 
City  in  1852),  the  license  of  David  and 
Solomon  is  approved,  plain  authoriza- 
tion is  given  to  the  multiplying  of 
wives  to  any  extent  that  may  suit 
a  man's  convenience  and  pleasure,  and 
destruction  is  threatened  against  Emma 
Smith,  the  first  wife  of  Joseph,  unless 
she  should  desist  from  her  opposition 
to  the  polygamous  scheme.^  What  less 
is  this  than  a  virtual  confession  of 
the  pseudo  prophet  that  his  claim  to 
derive  his  oracles  from  the  Lord  was 
a  lying  pretense?  The  deliverance  at 
Nauvoo  in  1843  simply  negates  the 
Book  of  Mormon  as  well  as  the  rev- 
elations of  1831.  No  wit  of  man 
can  reconcile  them,  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  Joseph  Smith  made  the 
attempt.  According  to  the  credible 
report  of  William  Law,  who  was  at 
one  time  a  trusted  associate,  when 
charged  with  contradicting  the  Book 

»  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  cxxxii. 


82  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

of  Mormon  in  his  revelation  on  plural 
marriage,  he  replied:  ^'O,  that  was 
given  when  the  church  was  in  its 
infancy  5  then  it  was  all  right  to  feed 
the  people  on  milk,  but  now  it  is 
necessary  to  give  them  strong  meat.''^ 
The  frivolous  makeshift  may  have 
served  a  temporary  purpose;  but  of 
course  it  sanctions  a  contemptuous 
treatment  of  the  authority  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  If  a  solemn  injunction 
of  that  book  on  a  matter  of  capital 
importance,  and  formally  assuming  to 
mend  the  imperfection  of  antique  prac- 
tice, can  be  stigmatized  as  infantile 
diet,  why  may  not  any  other  portion 
of  the  book  be  set  aside  under  the 
same  disparaging  category?  To  one 
who  has  eyes  to  see  it  is  plain  enough 
that  Smith  overruled  and  trampled 
under  foot  his  earlier  deliverances  sim- 
ply because  his  lust  was  for  him 
more   imperious   than   the   claims   of 

*  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Palmyra,  p.  513. 


OF  MORMONISM  83 

self-consistency.  That  people  can  be- 
lieve in  him  in  spite  of  this  crookedness 
only  adds  another  to  the  historic 
proofs  of  the  possibilities  of  human 
credulity 


'\'*  c 


PART  III 
THE  RATIONAL  TEST 

1$-%  ^/Vi 


85 


PART  III 

THE  RATIONAL  TEST 

In  a  rational  point  of  view  Mormon- 
ism  is  discredited  by  the  superstitious 
and  intemperate  appeal  of  the  founder 
to  the  instrumentaUty  of  magic.  What 
well-informed  person  can  believe  that 
either  the  peep-stone  found  in  the  well 
of  Willard  Chase,  or  the  prisms  dig- 
nified with  the  name  of  urim  and 
thummimy  had  any  virtue  to  transfer 
Reformed  Egyptian  into  English?  The 
English  of  the  first  edition  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  indeed  execrable 
at  various  points;  but  to  suppose  that 
an  antique  language  can  be  trans- 
formed into  any  kind  of  Enghsh  by 
means  of  bits  of  mineral  substance  is 
to  canonize  the  queer.  Doubtless  by 
gazing  fixedly  into  a  crystal  an  im- 

87 


88  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

pressible  subject  can  be  thrown  into 
a  state  of  reverie,  as  he  can  also  by 
gazing  fixedly  at  the  tip  of  his  nose; 
but  neither  the  crystal  nor  the  tip 
of  the  nose  ever  qualifies  for  trans- 
lating an  absolutely  unknown  tongue 
into  one's  vernacular.  Smith's  pre- 
tense that  he  was  supplied  with  the 
venerable  Israelite  instrument,  the  urim 
and  thummim,  in  no  wise  alleviates 
the  incredible  magic  involved  in  the 
alleged  transaction.  For  the  scholarly 
verdict  is  that  the  use  of  urim  and 
thummim  among  the  Israelites  was 
only  a  solemn  form  of  casting  lots, 
a  means  of  deciding  between  the  simple 
alternatives  of  yes  and  no.  Any  such 
virtue  as  the  Mormon  prophet  attached 
to  this  instrumentality  does  not  come 
into  view.  Moreover,  the  fact  is  to 
be  emphasized  that  in  the  great 
prophetical  era  of  Israel  no  recourse 
seems  to  have  been  had  to  urim  and 
thummim.    The  lofty-minded  men  who 


OF  MORMONISM  89 

had  a  well-grounded  confidence  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  wrought  in  them  had 
no  use  for  such  insensate  tools  as 
are  claimed  to  have  been  employed 
in  the  origination  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon.* 

The  appeal  which  Mormon  apologists 
have  made  to  the  marvels  of  science, 
in  justification  of  the  efiicacy  of  such 
things  as  peep-stones  and  prisms,  is 
entirely  irrelevant.  Science  has  been 
able  to  achieve  real  results  by  accom- 
modation to  the  actual  constitution  of 
the  world.  Ten  thousand  years  of 
dabbling  with  such  instrumentaHties  as 
are  reputed  to  have  served  Joseph 
Smith  would  be  as  utterly  abortive 
as  have  been  the  efforts  of  the  pseudo 
science  of  astrology  through  its  long 
history.  It  should  be  noted,  further, 
that  our  apologists  come  very  near  to 
admitting  that  Smith's  accomplishment 


I  See  article,  "Urim  and  Thummim."  in  Hastings's  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible. 


90  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

of  his  task  by  means  of  mineral 
^^translators''  was  an  empty  pretense. 
One  and  another  of  them,  in  attempt- 
ing to  explain  the  undeniable  char- 
acteristics of  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
have  felt  obliged  to  affirm  for  their 
prophet  a  pretty  wide  range  of  free 
mental  activity.  How  instruments  that 
act  mechanically  can  enter  into  part- 
nership with  the  free  movements  of 
a  human  mind  they  have  not  explained. 
A  man  can  see  his  face  when  he 
gazes  into  a  looking-glass;  but  it  would 
be  a  very  extraordinary  looking-glass 
which  could  become  an  effective 
partner  in  the  free  working  out  of 
a  great  mental  program.  In  short, 
our  apologists,  besides  contradicting 
the  interpretation  put  upon  the  matter 
by  Smith's  contemporaries,  manifestly 
hazard  the  sacrifice  of  one  interest  in 
attempting  to  cover  another:  they  in- 
vite to  skepticism  as  to  the  fact  of 
the  urim  and  thummim  having  played 


OF  MORMONISM  91 

any   part    in    the    so-called    transla- 
tion. 

A  criticism  scarcely  less  scathing 
holds  against  the  procedure  attributed 
to  the  Lord  in  relation  to  the  plates 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Why  should 
he  have  been  so  wonderfully  con- 
cerned to  keep  them  hidden  away 
from  human  sight?  Apart  from  the 
message  which  they  contained,  what 
were  the  plates  but  old  metal?  and, 
when  once  the  message  had  been 
transcribed,  of  what  possible  use  could 
they  be  except  as  an  accessible  test 
of  the  fidelity  with  which  the  tran- 
scription, or  translation,  had  been 
made?  To  charge  the  Lord  with 
keeping  them  out  'of  sight  on  the 
score  of  their  sacredness  is  to  charge 
him  with  patronizing  an  arrant  fetish- 
ism. Things  are  sacred  in  proportion 
to  their  fulfillment  of  useful  offices. 
Old  metal  hidden  away  from  sight  is 
fruitful  of  no  worthful  result  whatever. 


92  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

God  could  not  possibly  have  any  mo- 
tive for  the  hiding.  The  motive  was 
altogether  with  Joseph  Smith.  The 
rational  inference  is  that  he  represented 
the  plates  as  forbidden  to  the  sight 
of  men  just  because  he  had  no  plates, 
at  least  none  that  could  endure  critical 
inspection  for  the  briefest  interval.  U 
Passing  on  to  more  general  grounds 
of  rational  objection  to  Mormonism, 
we  notice  the  artificial  basis  of  author- 
ity which  it  imports  by  its  intemperate 
stress  upon  isolated  divine  workings, 
upon  baldly  supernatural  or  quasi- 
supernatural  interventions.  No  doubt 
supernatural  workings  may  be  so  har- 
moniously interwoven  with  other  con- 
tents of  a  great  historical  system  as 
to  be  a  valuable  factor  in  the  total 
evidence  for  the  system.  But  a  cordial 
admission  of  this  fact  in  no  wise 
excludes  occasion  to  challenge  the  rat- 
ing of  the  formally  supernatural  which 
is   characteristic   of   Mormonism.     It 


OF  MORMONISM  93 

virtually  ignores  the  great  truth  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  may  be  operative  in 
and  through  the  historic  process,  and 
thereby  bring  forth  most  precious  and 
substantial  results.  In  the  advancing 
and  deepening  convictions  which  lift 
civilizations  up  to  a  purer  ideal  it  is 
disinclined  to  see  any  token  of  divine 
revelation.  God  must  break  into  the 
world  by  a  formal  manifestation  and 
give  a  formal  message  through  a  specific 
mouthpiece,  or  he  must  stay  out  of 
the  world  and  keep  silence.  This 
point  of  view  is  conspicuous  in  various 
deliverances  of  Mormon  writers.  Let 
the  following  serve  as  examples:  ^If 
no  one  man  can  know  a  minister  of 
God  without  revelation,  then  no  large 
body  of  men  can  know  him;  and, 
surely,  they  cannot  testify  of  what 
they  do  not  know.  No  matter  what 
is  said  against  Joseph  Smith,  or  who, 
or  how  many  say  it,  or  however 
credible   the   witnesses,   they  are  not 


94  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

competent  to  testify,  because  they  have 
not  the  gift  of  revelation.''^  '^One 
thing  is  certain;  if  the  angel  has  not 
come — if  the  gospel  is  not  restored — 
if  the  records  of  Joseph  are  not  re- 
vealed, then  there  is  no  kingdom  of 
God  on  earth,  no  authority  to  preach 
or  administer  ordinances  among 
men."^  V 

On  the  basis  from  which  such  state- 
ments proceed  no  historical  evolution 
can  carry  any  weight  as  against  a 
specific  utterance  of  a  man  who  has 
been  credited  with  a  prophetical  voca- 
tion and  assumes  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.  For  example,  by 
virtue  of  a  growing  insight  into  the 
proper  application  of  gospel  principles 
a  universal  consensus  may  be  worked 
out  in  Christian  minds  as  to  the 
essential  wrong  and  injustice  of  human 


1  Orson  Spencer,   Letters  on  the   Most  Prominent   Doctrines, 
Letter  ii,  1847,  pp.  45,  46. 

2  Orson  Pratt,  Series  of  Pamphlets,  No.  I,  p.  8. 


OF  MORMONISM  95 

slavery;  that,  we  are  asked  to  believe, 
is  of  no  significance.  It  is  destitute 
of  all  divine  authority.  The  pro- 
nouncement of  one  fulfilling  the  role 
of  a  prophet  can  nullify  the  whole 
consensus  and  obligate  to  a  contrary 
judgment.  God  works  out  nothing 
through  the  historic  evolution.  All 
depends  upon  the  edict  voiced  by  the 
professional  spokesman.  This,  to  all 
appearance,  is  the  ruling  point  of 
view  in  Mormonism,  and  it  is  glaringly 
exhibited  in  connection  with  the  doc- 
trine of  polygamy.  By  virtue  of  the 
monogamic  ideal  which  shines  forth 
from  the  bibhcal  revelation  (in  spite 
of  its  record  of  polygamous  practice  in 
certain  instances),  by  respect  for  the 
great  principle  of  equality  of  male  and 
female  in  Christ,  by  aiT  irrepressible 
sense  of  the  injustice  of  condemning 
a  devoted  wife  to  take  up  with  the 
mere  fraction  of  a  husband,  by  a 
recognition  of  the  natural  conditions 


96  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

of  true  heart  devotion  and  real  con- 
jugal unity,  Christians  came  universally 
to  condemn  polygamy  and  to  cast  it 
out  as  incompatible  with  a  decent 
civilization.  All  that,  from  the  Mor- 
mon standpoint,  counts  for  nothing. 
Joseph  Smith  said  that  he  had  a 
revelation  legitimating  polygamy,  and 
his  word  ends  the  matter.  God  dem- 
onstrated his  will  in  this  so-called 
revelation.  In  the  working  out  and 
deep  implantation  in  a  Christian  civ- 
ilization of  the  family  ideal  his  will 
in  no  wise  came  to  expression. 

The  theory  is  so  narrow-gauge,  and 
so  opens  the  door  to  noxious  imposi- 
tions, that  manifestly  it  falls  quite 
outside  the  pale  of  rational  approval. 
Moreover,  in  its  apphcation  by  Mor- 
mons to  the  point  before  us  there 
is  an  altogether  gratuitous  element.  ^ 
Even  if  constrained  to  hold  in  theory 
that  the  specific  utterance  of  a  prophet 
is  the  one  thing  that  carries  weight. 


OP  MORMONISM  97 

why  should  they  attach  a  decisive 
authority  to  the  revelation  of  Smith 
in  favor  of  polygamy,  standing  as  it 
does  in  contradiction  to  previous  rev- 
elations of  his  and  to  the  plain  text 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon?  Why  not 
take  this  aberrant  revelation  as  a 
proof  that,  if  ever  he  was  called  to 
the  prophetical  office,  he  had  turned 
truant  to  his  calling  and  become  an 
instrument  of  seduction?  What  less 
than  extraordinary  blindness  could  ex- 
clude the  choice  of  this  alternative? 
So  the  Mormons  are  guilty  of  a 
double  blunder  in  this  matter.  They 
hold  a  one-sided  and  artificial  premise 
respecting  the  method  of  divine  work- 
ing and  divine  revelation,  and  they 
make  a  gratuitous  and  aberrant  appli- 
cation of  that  premise. 

A  narrowness  quite  as  flagrant  as 
that  just  noticed  appears  in  the  utter 
disparagement  which  exponents  of 
Mormonism  have  been  wont  to  visit 


98  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

upon  the  Christian  world  at  large  and 
in  the  crying  up  of  their  own  system 
as  possessed  of  sole  legitimacy.  Often 
enough  in  the  course  of  history  a 
bigoted  self-appreciation  has  been  ex- 
hibited, and  illustration  has  been  given 
of  the  besetting  sin  of  religious  society 
by  the  claim  of  this  or  that  party  to 
possess  a  monopoly  of  spiritual  goods. 
There  is  good  reason,  however,  to 
conclude  that  no  one  of  these  parties, 
even  the  most  eccentric,  has  surpassed 
the  Mormons  in  the  given  respect. 
The  founder  set  the  standard  of  self- 
appreciation  at  the  highest  notch  by 
representing  that  God  Almighty  was 
entirely  subservient  to  his  scheme,  and 
bound  to  bless  whomsoever  he  might 
bless,  and  to  curse  whomsoever  he 
might  curse.^  What  Joseph  Smith 
claimed  for  himself  Mormon  preachers 
and  writers  have  often  claimed  for 
their    sect.      They    have    asserted    a 

i  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  czzxii,  47. 


OF  MORMONISM  99 

monopoly  of  divine  interest  and  favor 
for  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter  Day  Saints,  and  have  stig- 
matized the  Christian  world  at  large 
as  an  apostate  and  God-forsaken  do- 
main. It  is  bold  impudence,  contends 
Orson  Pratt,  for  the  non-Mormon 
churches  to  call  themselves  Christian 
churches.  ^They  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Christ,  neither  has  Christ  any- 
thing to  do  with  them,  only  to  pour 
out  upon  them  the  plagues  written. . . . 
All  who  will  not  now  repent,  as  the 
authority  is  once  more  restored  to 
the  earth,  and  come  forth  out  of  the 
corrupt  apostate  churches  and  be 
adopted  into  the  Church  of  Christ 
and  earnestly  seek  after  the  blessings 
and  miraculous  gifts  of  the  gospel 
shall  be  thrust  down  to  hell,  saith  the 
Lord  God  of  Hosts.'^^  ^^Modern  Chris- 
tianity,'' writes  Orson  Spencer,  ''is  the 
very  opposite  extreme  and  counterpart 

»  Series  of  Pamphlets,  No.  Ill,  p.  8;  No.  V,  p.  8. 


100  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

of  the  ancient  order  of  apostles  and 
prophets.  .  .  .  The  very  religion  of 
modern  Christianity  is  about  as  great 
a  curse  as  can  be  inflicted  upon  its 
possessors  without  doing  violence  to 
their  power  of  agency.  .  .  .  The  reign 
of  Satan  for  near  eighteen  hundred 
years  has  almost  efifaced  every  relic 
of  Bible  truth  from  the  earth. ''^  Now 
and  then  doubtless  a  Mormon  has 
spoken  a  charitable  word  respecting 
the  character  and  fate  of  those  in 
outside  Gentilism.  Brigham  Young 
showed  himself  capable  of  doing  that.^ 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  made  this 
emphatic  declaration:  '^Every  spirit 
that  does  not  confess  that  God  sent 
Joseph  Smith,  and  revealed  the  ever- 
lasting gospel  to  and  through  him,  is 
of  Antichrist,  no  matter  what  it  pro- 
fesses with  regard  to  revealed  religion 
and  the  account  that  is  given  of  the 

1  Letters  Exhibiting  the  Most  Prominent  Doctrines,  pp.  79,  140, 
207,  208. 

2  Journal  of  Dia/^ourses,  viii,  pp.  36,  154. 


OF  MORMONISM  101 

Saviour  and  his  Father  in  the  Bible. 
They  may  say  that  they  acknowledge 
him  until  doomsday,  and  he  will  never 
own  them,  nor  bestow  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  them,  and  they  will  never  have 
visions  of  eternity  opened  to  them 
unless  they  acknowledge  that  Joseph 
Smith  is  sent  of  God/'^  Of  kindred 
import  is  the  following  sentence  from 
the  lips  of  this  Mormon  president: 
^The  moment  a  person  decides  to 
leave  this  people,  he  is  cut  off  from 
every  object  that  is  durable  for  time 
and  eternity/'^  '^We  are  standing 
here,''  said  John  Taylor,  "as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  God,  and  the  only  true 
representatives  he  has  upon  earth.''' 
In  a  like  vein  are  the  statements  in 
a  Mormon  catechism  which  affirm  that 
there  can  be  only  one  Church  of 
Christ  in  the  world,  and  take  pains  to 
describe  this  one  Church  in  a  way 

1  Journal  of  Discourses,  viii,  pp.  176,  177. 
a  Ibid.,  iv,  p.  31. 
»  Ibid.,  V,  p.  87. 


102  A  FODKFaLD  TEST 

which  identifies  it  with  the  Mor- 
mon.^ 

As  will  be  shown  when  we  come  to 
treat  of  its  sacerdotal  phase,  Mormon- 
ism  claims  a  vast  preeminence  as 
possessing  the  one  legitimate  priesthood 
through  whose  offices  alone  heirship  to 
the  full  glory  of  the  eternal  kingdom 
is  possible.  Those  destitute  of  those 
offices  must  remain  everlastingly  in  a 
comparatively  servile  rank. 

The  holders  of  such  a  lien  on  God 
and  such  a  monopoly  of  his  kingdom 
ought  certainly  to  furnish  tremendous 
credentials.  Where  are  these  to  be 
found?  Our  review  has  shown  that 
Mormonism  in  the  conditions  of  its 
origin  presents  the  reverse  of  a  cre- 
dential, and  facts  yet  to  be  stated 
will  indicate  that  its  after  history 
furnishes  no  compensation  for  this  for- 
midable drawback.  The  appeal  to  signs 
and  wonders,  so  prominent  in  Mormon 

1  Catechism  for  Children  by  Elder  John  Jaques. 


OF  MORMONISM  103 

apologetics,  amounts  to  nothing  sub- 
stantial. Numerous  modern  parties 
have  made  the  same  appeal,  and,  so 
far  as  discoverable,  with  equal  right. 
Take,  as  examples,  the  Roman  Church 
at  Lourdes  and  other  shrines,  the 
Dowieites,  Christian  Scientists,  Faith- 
healers,  and  others.  The  number  of 
competitors  does  not  permit  that  the 
Mormon  Church  should  find  in  that 
range  any  proof  of  lofty  preeminence 
and  sole  legitimacy.  What  we  have 
is  not  proof,  but  boasting,  and  such 
boasting  as  a  man  of  insight  and 
experience  would  expect  to  find  only 
where  a  combination  of  ignorance  and 
fanaticism  prevails.  A  Church  that 
has  been  so  nearly  powerless  to  emulate 
the  wealth  of  the  Christian  world  in 
a  deeply  spiritual  literature  and  in 
shining  examples  of  piety  simply  makes 
itself  ridiculous  when  it  puts  a  ban 
upon  Christendom  and  claims  a  monop- 
oly of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 


104  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Passing  on  to  prominent  features  in 
the  doctrinal  system  of  Mormonism, 
we  find  a  basis  of  refutation  in  its 
materialism,  its  polytheism,  its  phalli- 
cism,  and  its  rank  sacerdotalism. 

The  founder  supplied  a  very  compre- 
hensive basis  for  the  materialistic  phase 
of  the  Mormon  system.  Not  only 
did  he  proclaim  the  doctrine,  so  con- 
stantly repeated  by  his  followers  down 
to  this  day,  that  ^'the  Father  has  a 
body  of  flesh  and  bones  as  tangible 
as  man's, ''^  but  he  ruled  out  spirit 
as  distinct  from  matter.  These  are 
his  words:  '^AU  spirit  is  matter,  but 
it  is  more  fine  or  pure,  and  can  only 
be  discerned  by  purer  eyes.  We  cannot 
see  it;  but  when  our  bodies  are  purified 
we  shall  see  that  it  is  all  matter. ''^ 
Orson  Pratt,  reputed  to  have  been 
the  most  scholarly  man  among  the 
early  Mormons,   wrote   at   length   in 


1  Dootrine  and  Covenants,  czxx,  22. 
« Ibid.,  cxxxi,  7,  8. 


OF  MORMONISM  105 

support  of  this  all-inclusive  material- 
ism. ^The  Father/'  he  declared,  'Is 
a  material  being.  The  substance  of 
which  he  is  composed  is  wholly  ma- 
terial."^ Like  descriptions  were  applied 
by  him  to  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit  j 
and,  speaking  of  Deity  in  general,  he 
made  it  to  consist  of  particles  detached 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree  from  each 
other  by  intervening  spaces.^  Later 
writers  may  have  shown  less  boldness 
than  Orson  Pratt  in  advocating  the 
materialistic  creed;  still  as  recent  a 
writer  as  James  E.  Talmage  has  penned 
this  sentence:  "I  submit  that  to  deny 
the  materiality  of  God's  person  is  to 
deny  God,  for  a  thing  without  parts 
has  no  whole,  and  an  inamaterial  body 
cannot  exist. ''^ 

While  perfectly  free  to  assign  a 
body  of  specific  dimensions  to  God  the 
Father,  Mormons  have  felt  a  degree 

1  Series  of  Pamphlets,  No.  II,  p.  4. 
»  Ibid.,  The  First  Great  Cause,  p.  12. 
•  The  Articles  of  Faith,  1899,  p.  48. 


106  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

of  hesitation  to  apply  the  like  descrip- 
tion to  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  so  far, 
however,  as  they  have  respected  the 
dictum  of  Joseph  Smith  on  the  non- 
existence of  pure  spirit,  they  have  been 
under  practical  compulsion  to  ascribe 
a  body  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  only  one 
of  a  vague  sort,  like  a  widely  extended 
vapor,  gas,  ether,  or  peculiar  species 
of  fluid.  Orson  Pratt  defines  it  as  a 
widely  diffused  complex  of  particles. 
''No  two  persons,'^  he  says,  "can 
receive  the  same  identical  particles  of 
this  Spirit  at  the  same  instant;  a  part 
therefore  of  the  Holy  Spirit  will  rest 
upon  one  man,  and  another  part  will 
rest  upon  another.  ^'^  Parley  P.  Pratt 
speaks  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  ''a  divine 
substance  or  fluid. ^'^  As  represented 
by  Nels  L.  Nelson,  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  a  universal  force,  serving  to  God  as 
a  mediimi  through  which  he  may  act 


1  Series  of  Pamphlets,  Absurdities  of  Immaterialism,  p.  24. 
•  Key  to  the  Science  of  Theology,  p.  29. 


OF  MORMONISM  107 

throughout  a  wide  range,  though  in 
person  he  is  confined  to  a  definite 
place.^  In  other  words,  he  identifies 
the  Holy  Spirit  with  an  impersonal 
cosmic  energy,  and  assigns  to  his 
anthropomorphic  deity  a  greater  or  less 
abihty  to  direct  this  energy. 

The  materialistic  phase  of  Mormon- 
ism  makes  a  congenial  basis  for  the 
polytheistic  phase.  A  god  who  is 
nothing  more  than  a  parcel  of  matter, 
subject  to  the  limitations  of  body,  and 
having  occasion  to  move  from  place  to 
place,  is  neither  so  high  in  nature  nor 
so  inclusive  but  that  he  may  very 
well  have  many  associates.  So  the 
Mormons  were  prompt  to  infer.  With 
marked  decision  they  espoused  a  pro- 
nounced polytheism.  Joseph  Smith 
may  not  have  said  much  on  this  sub- 
ject. He  gave,  however,  an  adequate 
suggestion  in  this  sentence,  spoken  in 
the  temple  at  Nauvoo,  April  6,  1844: 

I  Sdentifio  Aspects  of  Mormonism,  pp.  49,  50. 


108  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

*^You  have  got  to  learn  to  be  gods 
yourselves,  and  to  be  kings  and  priests 
to  God,  the  same  as  all  gods  have 
done  before  you. ' '^  In  equivalent  terms 
Brigham  Young  declared,  'The  Lord 
created  you  and  me  for  the  purpose 
of  becoming  gods  like  himself.  "^  In 
a  Mormon  catechism  we  have  this 
question  and  answer:  ''Are  there  more 
gods  than  one?  Yes,  many."^  A 
writer  ambitious  to  demonstrate  the 
scientific  character  of  Mormonism  re- 
jects the  supposition  of  a  supreme 
First  Cause  and  substitutes  a  line  of 
perfected  psychic  beings  or  gods,  reach- 
ing back  indefinitely.*  Each  one  of 
these  beings,  he  assumes,  attained  to 
godhood  by  a  process  of  development. 
"As  man,  God  once  was;  as  God  is, 
man  may  become.'^  The  scheme  seems 
to  confront  us  with  such  a  multiplicity 

>  Journal  of  Discourses,  vi,  p.  4. 

2  Ibid.,  iii,  p.  93.    Compare  P.  P.  Pratt,  Key  to  the  Science  of 
Theology,  pp.  32-37. 

•  Catechism  for  Children  by  Jaques. 

*  Nelfl  L.  Nelson,  Scientific  Aspects  of  Mormonism,  pp.  237,  262. 


OF  MORMONISM  109 

of  gods  as  threatens  to  be  wearisome 
to  contemplate.  But  our  author  offers 
a  species  of  relief  by  suggesting  that 
in  practice  it  may  be  legitimate  and 
wise  to  center  our  attention  upon  the 
God  who  presides  in  our  corner  of 
the  universe,  the  God  of  the  biblical 
revelation.  This  God  he  supposes  to 
occupy  now  a  high  position,  though 
necessarily  "before  he  attained  to  god- 
hood,  he  passed  through  mutations 
such  as  are  inevitable  in  a  course  of 
psychic  evolution/'^  As  beginning  at 
an  initial  point  and  growing  up,  the 
God  thus  acknowledged  does  not  ap- 
pear to  be  remote  in  type  from  the 
Adam  of  whom  Brigham  Young  said: 
"He  is  our  Father  and  our  God,  and 
the  only  God  with  whom  we  have  to 
do.''*  The  cited  author,  however,  is 
not  inclined  to  adopt  President  Young's 


iPage  273.    Compare  B.  H.  Roberts,  New  TTitnees  for  God, 
1911,  i,  pp.  467,  468,  473. 
s  Journal  of  Disooursea,  i,  p.  50. 


110  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

doctrine  of  the  Adam  God  without  a 
qualification.^ 

The  next  phase  of  Mormon  doctrine 
which  we  are  to  consider — its  pro- 
nounced phallicism,  or  stress  on  phys- 
ical procreation — is  not  without  a  dis- 
tinct aflBliation  with  the  phase  just 
reviewed.  A  god  who  is  only  an 
advanced  man,  and  who  is  possessed  in 
the  most  literal  sense  of  bodily  organs, 
might  conceivably  gain  a  numerous 
progeny  by  ordinary  generation.  Possi- 
bly the  anthropomorphic  conception  of 
Deity  would  not  by  itself  have  en- 
throned the  supposition  that  his  agency 
in  producing  children  is  of  the  given 
type.  But  when  once  polygamy  be- 
came a  dominant  interest  among 
Mormons,  there  was  naturally  a  ten- 
dency to  rival  the  most  pronounced 
phallic  system  of  the  pagan  world  in 
stress  on  the  procreative  function  of 
the  gods.     We  are  not  greatly   sur- 

>  Pp.  293,  294. 


OF  MORMONISM  111 

prised,  therefore,  to  hear  Brigham 
Young  declaring  of  God,  ''He  created 
man  as  we  create  our  children;  for 
there  is  no  other  process  of  creation/'^ 
Language  as  blunt  as  this  may  not 
often  occur  in  Mormon  writings;  but 
the  point  of  view  which  it  asserts  has 
not  lacked  expression.  It  appears  in 
B.  H.  Roberts's  comment  on  the  teach- 
ing of  Joseph  Smith  as  meaning  ''that 
man  is  the  offspring  of  Deity,  not  in 
any  mystical  sense,  but  actually;  that 
man  has  not  only  a  Father  in  heaven, 
but  a  mother  also.'^^  Other  statements 
as  little  ambiguous  can  be  found.^ 

The  zeal  for  polygamy  which  gained 
hospitality  for  such  a  picture  of  Deity 
became  controlling  in  the  Mormon 
hierarchy.  By  a  rapid  development 
the  doctrine  of  plural  marriage  ad- 
vanced to  a  position  of  exceptional  em- 
phasis.    Brigham  Young  showed  how 

» Journal  of  Discourses,  xi,  p.  122. 

2  New  Witness  for  God,  1911,  i,  p.  457. 

»  See  J.  D.  Nutting,  The  Private  Doctrines  of  Mormon  Theology. 


112  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

deeply  his  mind  was  imbued  with  the 
doctrine  when  he  declared  that  if 
his  women  should  leave  him,  ^^he 
would  go  and  search  up  others,  it 
being  the  duty  of  every  righteous  man 
and  woman  to  prepare  tabernacles  for 
all  the  spirits  they  can.''^  Not  less 
significant  of  his  mental  attitude  on 
this  subject  is  the  following:  '^If  I  be 
made  the  king  and  lawgiver  to  my' 
family,  and  I  have  many  sons,  I  shall 
become  the  father  of  many  fathers, 
for  they  will  have  sons,  and  so  on, 
from  generation  to  generation;  and  in 
this  way  I  may  become  the  father 
of  many  fathers  and  the  king  of  many 
kings.  In  this  way  we  can  become 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  or 
Father  of  fathers,  or  Prince  of  princes; 
and  this  is  the  only  course,  for  another 
man  is  not  going  to  raise  up  a  king- 
dom to  you.''^     Giving  expression  to 


» Journal  of  Discourses,  iv,  p.  66. 
s  Ibid.,  iii,  p.  266. 


OF  MORMONISM  113 

the  imperative  nature  of  his  polyg- 
amous tenet,  the  Mormon  president 
added,  ''If  any  of  you  will  deny  the 
pluraUty  of  wives,  and  continue  to  do 
so,  I  promise  that  you  will  be  damned.'' 
For  one  confessing  himself  a  Mormon 
not  to  believe  in  polygamy,  said  Orson 
Pratt,  is  utterly  absurd.  "A  person 
might  as  well  say,  'I  am  a  follower  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  I  do  not 
beUeve  in  him.'  ''^  "This  doctrine  of 
eternal  union  of  husband  and  wife 
and  of  plural  marriage,"  asserted  Jo- 
seph F.  Smith,  ''is  one  of  the  most 
important  doctrines  ever  revealed  to 
man  or  any  age  of  the  world.  With- 
out it  man  would  come  to  a  full  stop; 
without  it  we  never  could  be  exalted 
to  associate  with  and  become  gods/'^ 
"I  bear  my  testimony,''  said  George 
Teasdale,  "that  plural  marriage  is  as 
true  as  any  principle  which  has  been 


» Journal  of  Discourses,  October  7,  1874,  xvii,  224. 
2  Ibid.,  December  7,  1879,  xxi,  p.  10. 


114  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

revealed  from  the  heavens.  I  bear  my 
testimony  that  it  is  a  necessity,  and 
that  the  Church  of  Christ  in  its  full- 
ness never  existed  without  it.  Where 
you  have  the  eternity  of  marriage  you 
are  bound  to  have  plural  marriage.''^ 
Polygamy  is  not  a  theme  naturally 
fruitful  of  poetic  inspiration.  A  Mor- 
mon hymnist,  however,  has  succeeded 
in  expressing  his  zeal  for  this  part  of 
his  creed  in  rhjnne  as  follows: 

Through  him  who  holds  the  sealing  power, 

Ye  faithful  ones,  who  heed 
Celestial  laws,  take  many  wives, 

And  rear  a  righteous  seed. 
Though  fools  revile,  I'll  honor  you 

As  Abraham,  my  friend: 
You  shall  be  gods,  and  shall  be  blest 

With  lives  that  never  end.^ 

Thus  the  Mormon   hierarchy  have 
given  complete  demonstration  of  their 


1  Journal  of  Discourses,  January  13,  1884,  xxv,  p.  21. 

2  Sacred  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs,  seventeenth  edition,  Liver- 
pool, 1881,  No.  326. 


OF  MORMONISM  115 

conviction  that  polygamy  belongs  in 
the  very  foundation  of  their  system. 
It  is  much  too  basal  to  be  dislodged. 
To  renounce  it  would  be  like  tearing 
out  the  comer  stone.  The  agreement 
to  give  up  the  practice  of  polygamy 
which,  in  1895,  was  put  into  the 
constitution  of  Utah  as  a  condition  of 
Statehood  by  no  means  imphed  a 
renunciation  of  the  doctrine  of  polyg- 
amy; and  after-events  have  powerfully 
confirmed  the  suspicion  that  the  pur- 
pose to  give  up  the  practice  was  not 
seriously  entertained  by  a  portion  of 
the  hierarchy. 

In  sacerdotal  assumptions,  or  stress 
on  priestly  prerogatives,  Mormonism  is 
not  distanced  by  any  rival  known  to 
history.  As  was  indicated  above,  it 
claims  that  only  through  the  good 
ofiices  of  its  priesthood  can  men  attain 
to  the  full  glory  and  felicity  of  the 
heavenly  estate.  This  high  destiny, 
Joseph  Smith  clearly  asserted,  can  be 


116  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

reached  only  through  marriage  for 
eternity,  and  marriage  for  eternity  can 
be  validly  consummated  only  through 
the  instrumentality  of  those  who  hold 
the  keys  of  priesthood.^  As  many  as 
have  not  availed  themselves  of  this 
instrumentality,  says  Parley  P.  Pratt, 
"will  remain  in  a  single  state  in  their 
saved  condition,  to  all  eternity,  with- 
out the  joys  of  eternal  union  with  the 
other  sex,  and  consequently  without  a 
crown,  without  a  kingdom,  without  the 
power  to  increase.  Hence  they  are 
angels,  and  are  not  gods;  and  are 
ministering  spirits,  or  servants,  in  the 
employ  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Royal  Family  of  Heaven — the  Princes, 
Kings,  and  Priests  of  Eternity.''^ 

A  hierarchy  which  thus  claimed  the 
right  to  reach  its  hand  into  the  eternal 
world  was  not  likely  to  be  very  modest 
in  respect  of  its  prerogatives  to  super- 


1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  cxxxii,  15-20. 

2  Key  to  the  Science  of  Theology,  p.  173. 


OF  MORMONISM  117 

vise  this  present  world.  Within  the 
community  of  Latter  Day  Saints  it 
claimed  a  practically  unlimited  author- 
ity. Heber  C.  Kimball  spoke  as  a 
faithful  representative  of  the  hierarchy 
when  he  told  his  hearers  that  they 
were  clay  to  be  molded  according  to 
the  dictation  of  the  presiding  potter. 
"I  have/^  he  said,  "to  do  the  work 
he  tells  me  to  do,  and  you  have  to 
do  the  same.  ...  If  Brother  Brigham 
tells  me  to  do  a  thing,  it  is  the  same 
as  though  the  Lord  told  me  to  do  it. 
This  is  the  course  for  you  and  every 
other  saint  to  take.'^^  That  the  Mor- 
mon president  thought  as  well  of  his 
authority  as  did  his  priestly  associate 
is  evinced  by  this  utterance:  "No  man 
need  judge  me.  You  know  nothing 
about  it,  whether  I  am  sent  or  not; 
furthermore,  it  is  none  of  your  business, 
only  to  listen  with  open  ears  to  what 


1  Journal  of  Discourses,  i,  p.  161. 


118  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

is  taught  you  and  to  serve  God  with 
an  undivided  heart. '^^ 

The  community  of  Latter  Day  Saints 
was  far  from  constituting  the  whole 
earthly  domain  over  which  the  Mor- 
mon priesthood  claimed  the  right  of 
sovereign  control.  It  asserted  that  it 
stood  above  all  earthly  powers,  and 
was  vested  with  full  authority  to  direct 
them.  ^The  priesthood/'  wrote  Parley 
P.  Pratt,  ^^holds  the  power  and  the 
right  to  give  laws  and  commandments 
to  individuals,  churches,  rulers,  nations 
and  the  world;  to  appoint,  ordain,  and 
establish  constitutions  and  kingdoms; 
to  appoint  kings,  presidents,  governors, 
or  judges,  and  to  ordain  and  anoint 
them  to  their  several  callings;  also  to 
instruct,  warn,  and  reprove  them  by 
the  word  of  the  Lord."^  ''Some  peo- 
ple,'' observed  John  Taylor,  ''ask.  What 
is   priesthood?     I   answer,   It   is   the 


1  Journal  of  Discourses,  i,  p.  341. 

2  Key  to  the  Science  of  Theology,  pp.  66,  67. 


OF  MORMONISM  119 

legitimate   rule   of   God,   whether   in 
heaven  or  on  the  earth;  and  it  is  the 
only  legitimate  power  that  has  a  right 
to  rule  upon  the  earth;  and  when  the 
will  of  God  is  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven,  no  other  power  will  bear 
rule.''^    So  runs  the  oft-repeated  claim 
of  the  Mormon  hierarchy   A  medieval 
pope  never  magnified  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority in  terms  more  emphatic  than 
those  which  this  boastful  priesthood 
has  employed  in  description  of  its  own 
prerogatives.    The  record  which  it  has 
made  in  ordering  the  political  conduct 
of   its   votaries,   striking   as   that   is, 
affords  but  a  very  partial  illustration 
of  the  sovereignty  over  mundane  affairs 
which  it  has  described  as  belonging  to 
itself  by  right. 

To  state  these  features  of  Mormon 
teaching  is  to  judge  them  in  the  sight 
of  an  enlightened  philosophy  and  theol- 
ogy.   The  materialized  and  humanized 


J  Journal  of  Discourses,  v,  p.  187. 


120  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

conception  of  God,  or,  rather,  of  a 
plurality  of  gods,  which  is  put  for- 
ward, provides  for  no  ultimate  or  uni- 
versal sovereignty.  Beings  who  grow 
up  to  godhood  from  small  manlike 
beginnings,  and  who  are  limited  in 
space,  fall  utterly  short  of  the  requisite 
endowments  for  real  lordship  over  the 
universe.  They  are  simply  finite  fac- 
tors in  a  historic  evolution.  They  are 
grounded  in  and  subordinate  to  an  im- 
personal cosmos,  which  imposes  upon 
them  the  laws  to  which  they  must 
conform  in  order  to  attain  to  god- 
hood.  As  compared  with  the  Supreme 
Being  recognized  in  Christian  philos- 
ophy and  theology,  who  is  the  veritable 
Creator  and  Lord  of  the  universe,  they 
are  a  paltry  substitute  for  God.  And 
not  only  are  they  poverty-stricken  in 
respect  of  majesty  and  sovereign  power; 
they  furnish  no  intelligible  basis  of 
that  unity  which  the  mind  requires 
for  its  satisfaction  when  contemplating 


OF  MOEMONISM  121 

the  wonderfully  complex  and  wonder- 
fully ordered  universe.  The  coordinat- 
ing One,  philosophically  requisite  for  a 
real  cosmos,  or  harmonious  system,  is 
outside  of  all  analogy  with  this  crowd 
of  so-called  gods. 

In  respect  of  the  phallic  aspect  in  its 
creed,  Mormonism  has  never  justified 
the  notion  that  mere  physical  pro- 
creation is  the  measure  of  possible 
exaltation  or  advance  toward  godhood. 
The  notion  is  not  merely  crude;  it  is 
absurd  as  well.  Capacity  for  dominion 
depends  on  no  such  low  basis,  but, 
rather,  on  intellectual  and  moral  great- 
ness. It  is  perfectly  conceivable  that 
the  first  in  a  genealogical  line  should 
be  least  of  all  adapted  to  a  position  of 
lordship,  that  an  Adam  should  be 
utterly  distanced  in  this  respect  by 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  his  de- 
scendants. Chronological  priority  in  no 
wise  describes  merit  or  high  capacity; 
neither    does    the    number    of    one's 


122  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

progeny.  Breadth,  power,  and  wealth 
of  personaHty,  which  alone  entitle  to 
dominion,  are  not  dependent  on  these 
things.  It  is  the  number  and  quality 
of  a  man's  virtues  that  count  and  not 
the  number  of  his  wives.  Furthermore, 
it  cannot  be  overlooked  that  the  scheme 
of  plurality  of  wives  is  branded  with 
selfishness  and  injustice.  The  number 
belonging  to  the  male  and  to  the 
female  sex  respectively  is  too  nearly 
equal  to  make  it  possible  for  men  to 
multiply  wives  without  diminishing  the 
chances  of  their  fellows  to  enter  at 
all  into  marital  relations.  A  selfish 
plutocratic  hierarchy  might  conceiv- 
ably be  pleased  with  the  license  of 
the  harem  system;  but  men  who  recog- 
nize the  demands  of  equality  and 
justice  can  discover  no  apology  for 
such  a  system. 

The  sacerdotal  phase  of  Mormon- 
ism  invites,  like  the  other  phases 
commented  upon,   to  unsparing  crit- 


OF  MORMONISM  123 

icism.  It  pictures  God  as  inconceivably 
narrow,  technical,  and  lacking  in  mag- 
nanimity. No  one  but  a  grand  master 
of  red  tape,  a  being  a  thousand  times 
more  concerned  about  method  than 
about  the  interests  of  those  to  whom 
the  method  applies,  could  be  imagined 
to  make  the  destiny  of  the  race  de- 
pend on  a  few  external  performances 
of  a  priesthood,  in  any  such  degree 
and  manner  as  the  Mormon  teaching 
assumes.  It  is  almost  a  marvel  that 
the  Latter  Day  Saints  themselves  can 
respect  a  God  who  rests  the  well-being 
of  the  rational  and  moral  creation  on 
that  ridiculously  contracted  pedestal. 

In  addition  to  the  consideration  of 
the  four  doctrinal  phases  specially 
selected  for  criticism,  a  brief  com- 
ment on  the  doctrine  of  ^'blood  atone- 
ment" will  not  be  amiss.  Expression 
was  given  to  this  grim  tenet  September 
21,  1856,  in  addresses  by  J.  M.  Grant 
and  Brigham  Young.    The  former  re- 


124  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

marked:  '^I  say  that  there  are  men 
and  women  that  I  would  advise  to  go 
to  the  President  immediately,  and  ask 
him  to  appoint  a  committee  to  attend 
to  their  case;  and  then  let  a  place  be 
selected,  and  let  that  committee  shed 
their  blood. . . .  We  have  those  amongst 
us  that  are  full  of  all  manner  of  abom- 
inations, those  who  need  to  have  their 
blood  shed,  for  water  will  not  do,  their 
sins  are  of  too  deep  a  dye."^  ^ There 
are  sins,"  said  Brigham  Young,  ^^that 
men  commit  for  which  they  cannot 
receive  forgiveness  in  this  world,  or 
in  that  which  is  to  come,  and  if  they 
had  their  eyes  open  to  see  their  true 
condition,  they  would  be  perfectly  will- 
ing to  have  their  blood  spilt  upon  the 
ground,  that  the  smoke  thereof  might 
ascend  to  heaven  as  an  offering  for 
their  sins,  and  the  smoking  incense 
would  atone  for  their  sins."*    A  few 


1  Journal  of  Discourses,  iv,  p.  49. 
« Ibid.,  iv,  p.  53. 


OF  MORMONISM  125 

months  later  he  expounded  the  de- 
mands of  love  to  the  neighbor  in  this 
pecuhar  manner:  'This  is  loving  our 
neighbor  as  ourselves :  if  he  needs  help, 
help  him;  if  he  wants  salvation,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  spill  his  blood  on 
the  earth  in  order  that  he  may  be 
saved,  spill  it."^  These  instructions 
look  as  if  they  were  meant  to  be 
carried  out  in  practice.  A  Mormon 
apologist  would  have  us  believe  that 
never  were  they  really  acted  upon; 
but  there  is  evidence  to  the  contrary.* 
It  is  worthy  of  note  too  that  the 
apologist  finds  no  better  reason  for 
not  putting  the  doctrine  in  practice 
than  the  prejudice  of  the  nations  and 
the  laws  growing  out  of  this  prejudice. 
"When  the  time  comes  that  the  law 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  in  full  force  upon 
the  earth,  then  the  penalty  will  be 
inflicted  for  those  crimes  committed  by 

1  Journal  of  Discourses,  iv,  p.  219.  ^    ^    „  ii^„k.t« 

2  Linn.  pp.  454-457;  F.  J.  Cannon  and  G.  L.  Knapp.  Bngham 
Young  and  His  Mormon  Empire,  pp.  266-268. 


126  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

persons  under  covenant  not  to  com- 
mit them/'^ 

Only  an  exegesis  that  is  discredit- 
ably narrow  and  destitute  of  a  sense 
for  perspective  can  find  any  basis  for 
this  doctrine  in  the  Scriptures.  It 
is  transcended  in  the  better  range  of 
Old  Testament  teaching,  and  receives 
no  sanction  in  the  New  Testament. 
The  text  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
ix.  22,  which  our  apologist  supposes 
to  contain  a  categorical  declaration  that 
without  the  shedding  of  blood  there 
is  no  remission,  contains  nothing  of 
the  sort.  Closely  examined,  it  will  be 
seen  to  embody  only  the  historical 
statement,  that  in  the  symbolical  ritual 
of  Israel  rites  contemplating  the  remis- 
sion of  sins  usually,  though  not  uni- 
versally, contained  the  element  of 
bloody  sacrifice.  As  for  rational  war- 
rant   for    the    merciless    tenet,    it    is 


*  C.  W.  Penrose,  Blood  Atonement  as  Taught  by  Leading  Elders 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints,  pp.  43,  44. 


OF  MORMONISM  127 

scarcely  possible  to  imagine  how  any- 
one  can  suppose  that  a  wise,  holy, 
and  righteous  God  can  refuse  to  be 
satisfied  by  the  deepest  contrition 
which  the  human  spirit  can  render,  and 
consent  to  be  appeased  only  by  blood 
smoking  from  the  ground.  A  God 
exceedingly  responsive  to  physical  phe- 
nomena, but  blind  to  the  worth  of 
the  spiritual,  might  adopt  that  plan 
of  administration.  The  infinite  Father 
of  spirits  cannot  be  thought  to  pro- 
ceed thus. 

The  foregoing  discussion  is  not 
meant,  of  course,  to  imply  that  Mor- 
mon teaching  has  not  taken  over  from 
the  common  stock  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples and  maxims  many  things  that 
are  worthy  of  all  acceptation.  Never- 
theless, the  conclusion  is  unavoidable 
that  a  system  which  incorporates  and 
emphasizes  the  criticized  doctrines  is 
vitiated  to  its  foundations. 


PART  IV 
THE  PRACTICAL  TEST 


129 


PART  IV 
THE  PRACTICAL  TEST 

In  taking  up  the  data  which  make 
for  the  practical  refutation  of  Mor- 
monism  it  is  not  necessary  to  bring 
any  sweeping  charge  against  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  the  Mormons  as 
a  body.     That  a  large  proportion  of 
them  have  been  better  than  the  system 
in  which  they  have  been  ensnared  may 
readily  be  admitted.     Still  further,  it 
can    be    granted    that    a    scheme    of 
minute  official  oversight,  such  as  is  im- 
posed upon  the  Mormon  people,  might 
be — so  long  as  it  should  find  subjects 
content    to    remain    in    a    relatively 
passive  state — favorable  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  species  of  external  morality. 
Concessions   like   these   ought   to   be 
made  by  the  critic  without  reluctance. 
He   has  no   occasion   to  picture   the 

131 


132  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Mormons  as  exceptionally  bad.  He 
achieves  the  purpose  of  refutation  in 
showing  that  their  record  is  far  from 
being  in  accord  with  their  enormous 
claims,  that  it  has  been,  in  fact,  no 
whit  better  than  might  be  expected 
of  any  erring  sect  inflamed  with  a 
special  zeal. 

The  ground  of  adverse  comment 
on  Mormon  conduct  extends  most 
unmistakably  to  the  record  of  the 
founder.  Not  to  mention  other  things, 
two  serious  counts  stand  against  him 
in  connection  with  the  closing  period, 
or  the  years  spent  at  Nauvoo.  In 
the  first  place,  he  was  given  up  to 
an  unbridled  libertinism.  Curiously 
enough,  a  hint  is  furnished  of  his 
marital  infidelity  in  the  revelation  in 
which  he  justifies  polygamy,  for  in 
that  document  his  wife  Emma  is 
solemnly  enjoined  to  forgive  his  tres* 
passes.^     He  practiced  largely  before 

1  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  czxzii,  56. 


OF  MORMONISM  133 

formulating  a  dogma  which  might  serve 
to  exculpate  his  practice.  Evidence  of 
his  unbridled  license  is  conclusive. 
Orthodox  Mormon  historians  freely  ad- 
mit that  their  ''prophet''  practiced  the 
theory  of  plurality  of  wives  and  ad- 
vised his  intimates  to  do  likewise.  J. 
H.  Evans  gives  the  names  of  four  of 
the  extra  wives  of  Smith,  and  takes 
no  pains  to  suggest  that  he  is  pre- 
senting a  full  hst.i  Writing  in  1873, 
Stenhouse  was  able  to  testify:  ''At  the 
present  time  there  are  probably  a  dozen 
'sisters'  in  Utah  who  proudly  acknowl- 
edge themselves  to  be  the  'wives  of 
Joseph,'  and  how  many  others  there 
may  have  been  who  held  that  relation- 
ship 'no  man  knoweth.'  "*  The  same 
candid  writer  avers  also  that  one 
woman  in  Utah  informed  him  that  the 
said  Joseph  taught  her  that  it  was  the 
privilege  of  wives  to  entertain  'proxy 

» One  Hundred  Years  of  Mormonism,  pp.  473,  474. 
a  The  Rooky  Mountain  Saints,  p.  185. 


134  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

husbands'  during  the  absence  of  their 
liege  lords  on  mission.^  While  thus 
convicted  of  libertinism,  the  ^prophet' 
is  amenable  to  the  charge  of  occasion- 
ally indulging  in  strong  drink  to  the 
point  of  intoxication.  The  Rev.  Henry 
Caswall  records  four  instances  as  re- 
ported to  him,  with  specification  of 
place  and  circumstances,  in  which  the 
Mormon  leader  was  plainly  intox- 
icated.2  William  Law,  while  excusing 
Smith  from  the  charge  of  habitual 
excess  in  drink,  testifies  that  he  saw 
him  drunk  on  one  occasion.^  J.  C. 
Bennett,  who  was  closely  associated 
with  Smith  at  Nauvoo  for  an  interval, 
declared  it  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge that  the  ' 'prophet"  occasionally 
got  ^'gloriously  drunk;''*  but  here  the 

1  Page  301. 

2  The  City  of  the  Mormons,  pp.  49-51. 

»  Gregg,  The  Prophet  of  Palmyra,  p.  510. 

*  The  History  of  the  Saints,  1842,  p.  94.  The  record  for  occa- 
sional intoxication  seems  to  go  back  to  an  early  period.  Levi 
Lewis  testifies  that  he  saw  Smith  drunk  three  times  while  he  was 
preparing  the  Book  of  Mormon  (Howe,  Mormonism  Unveiled, 
p.  268). 


OF  MORMONISM  135 

character    of    the    witness    robs    the 
testimony  of  independent  value. 

That  the  followers  of  Smith  at 
Nauvoo  were  not  distinguished  by 
exemplary  conduct  is  well  attested. 
Their  reputation  for  thieving  was  wide- 
spread, and  that  in  some  part  they 
earned  the  reputation  is  not  open  to 
doubt.  The  Rev.  Henry  Caswall  re- 
cords something  of  what  he  heard  in 
1842  about  the  disregard  of  property 
rights  by  the  '^Saints.''  ''My  host/' 
he  says,  ''mentioned  that  he  had  lived 
five  years  among  heathen  Indians,  and 
had  never  been  robbed  by  them  of  the 
most  trifling  article.  During  the  three 
years  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
settlement  of  the  Mormons  at  Mont- 
rose and  Nauvoo  fourteen  robberies,  to 
the  amount  of  two  thousand  dol- 
lars, have  been  committed  upon  his 
property.''^  Unequivocal  evidence  that 
much  stealing  was  practiced  by  the 

1  The  City  of  the  Mormons,  p.  61. 


136  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

^'Saints"  is  contained  in  the  necessity 
which  the  church  authorities  recognized 
for  public  declarations  that  they  did 
not  sanction  the  practice.^  According 
to  John  D.  Lee,  Joseph  Smith,  in  an 
address  in  1840,  used  this  language: 
^'I  wish  you  all  to  know  that  because 
you  were  justified  in  taking  property 
from  your  enemies,  while  engaged  in 
war  in  Missouri,  which  was  needed  to 
support  you,  there  is  now  a  different 
condition  of  things.  We  are  no  longer 
at  war,  and  you  must  stop  stealing. 
When  the  right  time  comes  we  will 
go  in  force  and  take  the  whole  State 
of  Missouri.  It  belongs  to  us  as  our 
inheritance,  but  I  want  no  more  steal- 
ing.''^  As  the  moral  atmosphere  of 
Nauvoo  was  no  safeguard  against  a 
Uberal  practice  of  stealing,  so  it  did 
not  exclude  the  kindred  crime  of  coun- 
terfeiting.   Referring  to  denials  in  rela- 


»  Linn,  pp.  259,  260. 

a  Confession  of  John  Doyle  Lee,  edition  of  1905,  pp.  127,  128. 


OF  MOEMONISM  137 

tion  to  the  matter,  Stenhouse  remarks: 
''That  bogus  money  was  made  and 
m  circulation  in  and  around  Nauvoo, 
and  also  was  sent  to  a  distance  for 
circulation,  can  certainly  not  be  denied. 
That    some    of    'the    brethren'    were 
engaged  in  its  manufacture  seems  to 
be  well  supported  by  facts  which  sub- 
sequently transpired/'*    The  full  meas- 
ure of  this  criminality  need  not,  of 
course,  be  charged  against  Mormonism 
as  such.    In  the  mixed  multitude  which 
was  gathered  to  its  standard  at  Nau- 
voo there  were  undoubtedly  men  of 
bad  antecedents.    What  can  fairly  be 
charged  against  Mormonism  is  that,  on 
the  one  hand,  it  showed  little  power  to 
vitalize  conscience,  and,  on  the  other, 
by    its    overweening   assumptions   of 
superior  rights  in  the  world,  tended 
to  nurture  the  conviction  in  the  minds 
of  raw  recruits  that  the  ^'Gentiles" 
were  lawful  spoil. 

» The  Rocky  Mountain  Saints,  p.  218. 


138  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

In  Utah,  as  the  evidence  abundantly 
shows,  the  Latter  Day  Saints  continued 
to  make  a  mixed  record.  A  few  years 
after  their  establishment  there,  Brig- 
ham  Young  had  occasion  to  rebuke 
the  ^'elders  of  Israel' '  for  their  pro- 
fanity. ^'You  will  rip,  and  curse,  and 
swear,'^  he  told  them,  ''as  bad  as  any 
pirates  ever  did.''^  At  the  same  time 
he  complained  of  thieving,  noting  that 
his  own  woodpile  had  not  been  re- 
spected, ''Stories  could  be  told  of 
this  kind,'^  he  said,  "that  would  make 
professional  thieves  ashamed.''^  In  an- 
other instance  he  charged  some  of  the 
bishops  with  being  guilty  of  defalcation. 
"We  have  documents,''  he  declared,  "to 
show  that  bishops  have  taken  in  hun- 
dreds of  bushels  of  wheat,  and  only  a 
small  portion  of  it  has  come  into  the 
general  tithing  office;  they  stole  it  to 
let  their  friends  speculate  upon."^    Re- 

1  Journal  of  Discourses,  i,  p.  211.    Compare  iii,  p.  50. 

2  Ibid.,  i,  p.  213. 

«  Ibid.,  iii,  p.  342. 


OF  MORMONISM  139 

ferring  at  one  time  to  the  practices 
of   Mormon   merchants,   he   said:   ''I 
could  not  be  honest  and  do  as  they 
do;  they  make  five  hundred  per  cent 
on  some  of  their  goods,  and  that  too 
from  innocent,  confiding,  poor,  indus- 
trious people/'i     In  a  later  address, 
while  expressing  his  confidence  in  the 
good  character  of  a  large  majority  of 
Latter  Day  Saints,  he  added:  'Tet 
we  fellowship  those  who  are  full  of 
iniquity  and  evil,  individuals  who  are 
full    of    the    spirit    of    Anti-christ.''^ 
Some    allowance    may   be   made   for 
President  Young's  well-developed  fac- 
ulty for  scolding;  still  his  words  afford 
a  sufficient  assurance  that  the  Mormon 
community  in  its  chosen  retreat  did 
not  exemplify  a  specially  high  level  of 
righteousness.    At  one  epoch  the  level 
must  have  been  decidedly  low,  if  we 
are  to  trust  this  declaration  of  J.  M. 


1  Journal  of  Discourses,  xi,  114. 

2  Ibid.,  xvi.  26,  27. 


140  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

Grant  spoken  on  the  eve  of  the  so- 
called  reformation:  ^'Some  have  received 
the  priesthood  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
things  of  God,  and  still  they  dishonor 
the  cause  of  truth,  commit  adultery 
and  every  other  abomination  beneath 
the  heavens/'^ 

In  bringing  up  the  darkest  crime 
which  has  stained  Mormon  annals  in 
Utah,  we  have  no  intention  of  imply- 
ing that  the  Mormon  people  as  a  body, 
or  any  considerable  fraction  of  them, 
had  any  responsible  connection  with 
that  awful  tragedy.  The  Mountain 
Meadow  massacre  (1857),  in  which  a 
party  of  emigrants  passing  through 
Utah  on  their  way  to  California  was 
treacherously  and  cruelly  murdered,  to 
the  number  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
men,  women,  and  children,  was  the 
crime  of  the  few  rather  than  of 
the  many.  It  is  chargeable,  however, 
against  Mormonism  in  so  far  as  this 

1  Journal  of  Discourses,  iv,  p.  49. 


OF  MORMONISM  141 

pretentious  system  furnished  in  its 
characteristic  teachings  such  a  hotbed 
for  fanaticism  as  might  easily  be  pro- 
ductive of  outrage  in  the  absence  of 
powerful  restraints. 

As  to  the  history  of  the  Mountain 
Meadow  massacre,  two  facts  are  well 
estabUshed.  The  first  is  that  Mormons 
shared  directly  in  its  perpetration.  This 
is  admitted  by  their  apologist,  C.  W. 
Penrose.^  John  D.  Lee,  who  fulfilled 
the  role  of  a  scapegoat  and  was  executed 
in  1877  for  his  part  in  the  massacre, 
declared  that  the  work  of  blood  was 
wrought  by  fifty-four  Mormons  and 
three  hundred  Indians.^  The  second 
assured  fact  is  that  the  Mormons  were 
the  principals  in  the  tragedy  and  that 
the  Indians  are  to  be  rated  as  their 
auxiliaries.  Not  only  does  the  detailed 
narrative  of  Lee  bring  this  out  clearly; 
it  is  implied  also  in  the  admitted  fact 

»The  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre,  an  Address,  October  26, 
1884. 
a  Confession,  p.  315. 


142  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

that  a  messenger  was  sent  to  Brigham 
Young  to  get  his  decision  on  the  fate 
of  the  emigrants.  The  sending  of  the 
messenger  amounts  to  an  assumption 
on  the  part  of  those  sending  him  that 
it  lay  within  the  province  of  Mormon 
power  and  influence  to  destroy  or  to 
spare  the  contemplated  victims.  The 
word  returned  from  the  Mormon  pres- 
ident was  that  the  emigrants  should 
be  allowed  to  pass  on;  but  it  came 
apparently  too  late.  By  the  direction 
of  the  local  authorities  of  Cedar  City 
and  vicinity  the  massacre  had  already 
been  accompHshed  before  the  import 
of  Brigham  Young's  reply  was  known. 
Thus  the  central  authority  seems  not 
to  have  been  directly  implicated  in  the 
deed.  That  it  can  be  excused  from 
condoning  the  crime  and  hushing  up 
all  reference  to  it  after  its  commission 
is  far  from  evident.  The  allegation 
that  Brigham  Young  supposed  the 
massacre    to    have    been    perpetrated 


OF  MORMONISM  143 

solely  by  the  Indians  has  far  too  much 
the  appearance  of  a  convenient  myth, 
besides  being  contradictory  to  the  state- 
ments of  Lee  and  Hamblin.^ 

The  Mountain  Meadow  atrocity  was 
the  most  appalling  exhibition  of  a 
fanaticism  which  reached  its  chmax 
among  the  Mormons  between  1856  and 
1858.  In  the  practice  of  polygamy 
their  system  provided  a  snare  for  the 
conscience  which  wrought  mischief  at 
the  time  of  its  introduction  and  is 
still  a  demoralizing  factor.  In  the 
interval  between  its  formal  justifica- 
tion through  the  pretended  revelation 
of  Smith  and  its  open  promulgation 
(1843-1852)  it  was  the  occasion  of 
much  hypocrisy  and  falsehood.  The 
''prophet''  himself  furnished  a  conspic- 
uous precedent.  In  the  Times  and 
Seasons  of  February,  1844,  together 
with  his  brother  Hyrum,  he  gave  his 


1  Lee's  Confession,  pp.  336ff.;  Linn,  pp.  530-532;  Cannon  and 
Knapp,  Brigham  Young  and  His  Mormon  Empire,  p.  280. 


144  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

signature  to  a  statement  which  rates 
polygamy  among  ^^false  and  corrupt 
doctrines.'^  Near  the  same  date  a 
published  card,  prepared  by  the  direc- 
tion of  Emma  Smith,  denied  the  exist- 
ence of  polygamy  among  the  Latter 
Day  Saints,  and  one  of  the  signers  was 
Eliza  R.  Snow,  who  at  that  very  time 
was  a  plural  wife  of  Joseph  Smith.^ 
Parley  P.  Pratt,  while  in  England,  de- 
nounced the  doctrine  of  plural  marriage 
in  strong  terms.  In  the  Millennial 
Star  of  1846  he  declared  the  doctrine 
''as  foreign  from  the  real  principles  of 
the  Church  as  the  devil  is  from  God,'' 
though  he  was  perfectly  aware  of  the 
fact  that  it  had  been  formally  approved 
and  practiced  by  the  highest  author- 
ities of  the  Mormon  communion.  In 
France  Elder  John  Taylor  used  lan- 
guage in  1850  which  his  hearers  could 
only   interpret   as   meaning   that   the 


1  Cannon  and  Knapp,  Brigham  Young  and  HIb  Mormon  Empire, 
p.  72. 


OF  MORMONISM  145 

charge  of  teaching  and  practicing  polyg- 
amy was  a  slander  against  the  Latter 
Day  Saints;  yet  he  himself  had  at  that 
very  time  four  wives  in  Utah.^ 

Since  the  admission  of  Utah  to 
Statehood,^  polygamy  has  been  no  less 
fruitful  of  crookedness  than  it  was  at 
the  primary  stage.  In  direct  contra- 
vention of  the  revelation  promulgated 
by  President  Wilford  Woodruff,^  and 
of  the  clause  in  the  State  constitution 
forever  excluding  polygamy,  high 
officials  in  the  Mormon  Church  went 
right  on  with  their  polygamous  prac- 
tices. The  next  year  after  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution  Apostle  A.  H. 
Cannon  transgressed  its  provision  by 
taking  a  new  wife,  and  Apostle  Teas- 
dale  did  likewise  soon  after.     During 


1  John  Hyde,  Mormonism,  pp.  13-15. 

*  The  enabling  act  was  passed  in  1894,  and  the  constitution 
adopted  in  1895. 

8  The  manifesto  put  forth  in  1890,  though  not  in  the  form  of  a 
revelation,  was  freely  accorded  that  character  by  Mormon  authori- 
ties, and  after  considerable  delay  was  included  in  the  book  of 
Doctrine  and  Covenants. 


146  A  FOUKFOLD  TEST 

the  investigation  incident  to  the  ques- 
tion of  seating  Senator-elect  Smoot 
(1904-1907)  evidence  of  polygamous 
cohabitation  was  brought  out  in  ample 
measure.  Among  those  confessing  their 
bad  faith  was  President  J.  F.  Smith. 
He  admitted  that  since  the  pledge  to 
give  up  polygamy  had  been  made  he 
had  had  eleven  children  bom  to  him 
by  his  five  wives.  With  this  example 
of  the  leaders  before  them  it  lies  in 
the  nature  of  the  case  that  not  a  few 
should  be  snared  into  violating  both 
the  requirement  of  an  acknowledged 
revelation  and  the  demand  of  the  State 
constitution.^  If  any  feature  of  relief 
is  discoverable  it  lies  in  the  judgment, 
sometimes  expressed,   that  the  senti- 

1 A  writer  who  had  abundant  opportunity  to  know  the  facts  ha« 
expressed  them  in  these  emphatic  terms:  "This  is  the  new  polygamy 
of  Mormonism.  The  church  leaders  dare  not  acknowledge  it  for 
fear  of  the  national  consequences.  They  dare  not  even  secretly 
issue  certificates  of  plural  marriage,  lest  the  record  should  be 
betrayed.  They  protect  the  polygamist  by  a  conspiracy  of  false- 
hood which  is  almost  as  shameful  as  the  shame  which  it  seeks  to 
cover;  and  the  infection  of  the  duplicity  spreads  like  a  plague  to 
corrupt  the  whole  social  life  of  the  people"  (F.  J.  Cannon,  Under 
the  Prophet  in  Utah,  1911,  p.  341). 


OF  MORMONISM  147 

ment  against  the  practice  of  polygamy 
has  made  in  recent  years  distinct  ad- 
vances among  the  younger  Mormons. 
It  is  not  in  evidence,  however,  that  the 
theory  of  the  intrinsic  legitimacy  of 
polygamy  is  being  renounced  in  any 
part  of  the  Mormon  domain.  By  force 
of  natural  connection  between  theory 
and  practice  it  may  be  expected  that 
the  demoralizing  duplicity,  which  has 
been  so  pronounced  since  the  admis- 
sion of  Utah  to  statehood,  will  not  be 
subject  to  any  speedy  cure. 

Aside  from  the  blot  caused  by 
polygamy  the  social  life  of  the  Mor- 
mons, if  not  specially  open  to  censure, 
cannot  claim  to  be  specially  free  from 
stain.  A  rather  favorable  report  may 
indeed  be  made  respecting  their  tem- 
perance habits  and  business  honesty; 
but  divorce  has  often  had  place  among 
them  on  trivial  grounds,  and  in  some 
of  their  communities  forced  marriages 
have  been  of  frequent  occurrence. 


148  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

In  respect  of  patriotic  devotion, 
Mormons  in  the  present  very  likely  do 
not  in  general  allow  themselves,  by 
force  of  the  theocratic  assumptions 
pertaining  to  their  system,  to  be 
crowded  into  a  feeling  of  hostility  or 
indifference  toward  the  national  gov- 
ernment. But  it  lies  in  the  nature  of 
those  assumptions  to  work  more  or 
less  in  that  direction,  and  how  effec- 
tually they  can  work  was  illustrated 
by  a  good  part  of  the  Brigham  Young 
regime  in  Utah.  His  treatment  of 
United  States  authority  would  have 
earned  him,  on  any  strict  construc- 
tion of  the  obligations  of  citizenship, 
the  rewards  of  high  treason.  A  sort 
of  excuse  for  his  hostile  and  contemp- 
tuous attitude  was  indeed  alleged  to 
exist  in  the  deeds  of  violence  per- 
petrated against  the  Saints  in  Missouri 
and  Illinois.  But  the  doings  of  border 
communities,  provoked,  though  not  in 
their    actual    form    justified,    by    the 


OP  MORMONISM  149 

intemperate  claims  of  the  strange  reli- 
gionists, afforded  no  valid  ground  for 
reviling  and  resisting  the  national  gov- 
ernment. Apart  from  the  impulses  of 
theocratic  sovereignty,  and  aside  from 
a  constituency  recognizing  the  claims 
of  that  order  of  sovereignty,  Brigham 
Young  would  not  have  been  inclined 
to  carry  himself  as  he  did  toward  the 
authority  of  the  United  States.  In 
this  line  he  was  giving  a  prelude  to 
that  larger  exhibition  of  lordship  in 
which  the  Mormon  hierarchy  has  de- 
clared its  right  and  its  expectation 
to  figure.  A  purely  spiritual  dominion 
has  never  been  its  ideal. 

Enough  has  been  said,  we  judge,  to 
estabUsh  our  contention.  That  con- 
tention, it  will  be  remembered,  was 
not  that  the  Mormons  as  a  body  can 
be  proved  to  have  been  signally  derelict 
in  morals,  but  only  that  their  conduct 
has  not  been  any  better  than  might 
be  expected  of  any  erring  sect  imbued 


150  A  FOURFOLD  TEST 

with  a  special  zeal.  The  result  stands 
out  clearly  from  the  review  that  the 
moral  record  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints 
puts  to  shame  their  pretense  to  be  in 
a  preeminent  sense  the  people  of  the 
Lord. 

We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
Mormonism,  in  consideration  of  the 
conditions  of  its  origin,  the  content 
of  its  teaching,  and  the  facts  of  its 
history,  is  entitled  to  but  the  scantiest 
respect.  Its  founder  is  convicted  by 
the  most  decisive  evidence  of  down- 
right imposture.  An  element  of  self- 
deception  may  have  been  combined 
with  the  imposture,  but  it  certainly 
collides  with  a  sane  historical  judgment 
not  to  admit  the  latter  in  full  measure. 
In  several  of  its  most  prominent  doc- 
trines Mormonism  has  exhibited  a 
thoroughly  retrograde  tendency;  and 
in  its  practical  fruits  it  has  rather 
refuted  than  in  any  wise  justified 
its  enormous  pretensions.    The  honest 


OF  MORMONISM  151 

devotion  which  many  thousands  of 
adherents  have  rendered  to  the  Mor- 
mon system  need  not  indeed  be  rated 
as  religiously  worthless;  but  it  must 
be  pronounced  a  great  pity  that  the 
devotion  has  not  been  centered  upon 
a  more  worthy  object. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
^EUoewedb<k»Jgp^re  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


NOV    llQfi^ 


10Feb'64PYX 


re:c'd  ud 


5  1974 S 


FEB    5:64-21 
-REXZ 


0\ 


^ 


-^ 

y 


INTER-LIBRARY 


LOAN 


^d^i4^ 


# 


JAEUJiliir_o.£W!i. 


DCn^n  I  n     kirmi  «%  lUi^i^ 


^A  04/90     . 


timy 


^^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


■-::^^$§^ 


